


The Mouse Maze

by Vivagrazia



Series: Breaking the Wolf [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hellfire!Ward, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, Inhumans - Freeform, Kidnapping, Man-Made Powers, Plot, Sequel, Team Gaining Powers, Team as Family, forced fights, nuhumans, powers, whole team fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-28 16:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivagrazia/pseuds/Vivagrazia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye and Lincoln were kidnapped, forced to fight, put on display and treated like property for eight months before SHIELD rescued them.</p><p>Shame it only lasted a day.</p><p>Now they and the rest of their team- along with over a dozen gifteds and their prisoner Grant Ward- have been captured. But what would a man whose only interest seems to be enhanced people want with the SHIELD agents?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mouse Maze

There was something abjectly terrifying about waking up in the dark. And no, not the, "without knowledge" type of dark, but like the  _dark_  dark.

Though she supposed the other wasn't too much of a stretch in her current predicament.

What Skye remembered was screaming, because at the time her voice had been the only thing left. The thousand bees trapped inside of her wailed and vibrated, but they couldn't escape. It nearly hurt, and more so did her anger and terror. She could have cried if the fury hadn't wrapped its hand so harshly around her heart.

She'd felt so many emotions that past day with her friends and she'd allowed them to take over. Could she have stopped it, stopped herself from acting out, if only she had known that she would have mere hours of the comfort and safety they provided?

Because before Skye knew it she had been frozen. Trapped inside the prison of her own body as paralysis came once again as her frequent jailer.

And then she couldn't see.

All of them had been covered in bags, style and texture reminiscent of the one Ward had put her in the day SHIELD walked into her life.

Where was Ward, now, she wondered? Where was Coulson?

Where was she?

Ah, yes. The dark.

Because though the dark had first come in the form of a covering over her eyes she could still feel, was still aware. Her friends had been talking beside her in hushed voices. Mainly Fitz and Simmons out of their fear, trying to calm one another.

Skye had not wanted to speak. The only one she yearned for was Lincoln. They separated her from him once again, and the recognizable ache for the touch of his hand echoed through the walls of her mind. She didn't say anything, or call for him. Kane would see her weakness and exploit it for his own joy.

She probably cried, then. Silently. In the dark in her bag, with her arms chained behind her rather redundantly, as she couldn't move in the first place. Alone.

Maybe not alone, she realized as her thoughts drifted to her belly.

Though Simmons didn't think she was pregnant. Wanted to run some tests before getting her hopes up…

But honestly, Skye didn't think she was either, now. The moment Jemma had told her the facts it seemed to clear up in her mind. It made sense. A nagging feeling of course would not allow her to be positive without the proper proof but… Skye didn't think they went through with it.

Why not, was another question.

So she had been  _most likely_  alone in the dark in her bag. Until the prick of a needle.

Then any voices to be heard faded away.

When Skye woke she did so with a start, which was the only way she could be certain she'd roused from any sort of slumber at all. That, and the bag was just… gone.

Guess what stuck around?

The dark.

Skye tried to move, but found herself stunted by the space of the room that engulfed her. It wasn't very large. Specific set of walls, though. She recognized the feel. She remembered the exact length and the way her body was forced to sit up in order for her legs to stretch out.

Of course she remembered. She'd spent three days there with nothing but her thoughts.

Bag gone and still hindered by blindness, Skye began to check her own person. Everything seemed in order from her shoes to her hair except-

Gloves.

The first inhibitors. The ones Ward helped her get rid of that sank into her with thousands of tiny teeth that kept her powers at bay.

Skye's teeth ground into her sagging lower lip as she fought back tears that tried to escape onto her strained face. Her head bounced off the wall behind herself when it careered backwards out of frustration. It hurt, and she took a deep, shaky breath to try and calm her nerves.

It didn't work.

Her breaths increased in frequency until she was gasping, hyperventilating. Calling out in a hoarse voice for someone to help her. Oh god,  _help her!_  They'd left her there to die, to suffocate in the tiny space. To starve, to go insane.

Skye curled inward until she made herself into a ball, fingers twirling around each other as she almost rocked herself back and forth like a child. Like a child afraid of the dark.

Hell yeah, she was afraid of the dark. This dark. This unforgiving, isolated dark.

Her chin lay on her arms before herself as she continued to gasp and shake. She was giving up before she'd tried. But she _had_  tried. She'd sat in this same spot for three days and nothing had come of it even when she'd 'explored'. Such a laughable term in the circumstance.

Now she'd just wait for the inevitability of nothing.

Maybe it would be peaceful.

"Skye?"

Looking up- well she moved her head up, but sight still wasn't with her-, she inhaled a long gasp of surprise.

"Coulson?" she managed.

"Skye, you're in there?"

She couldn't stop herself. Upon hearing his voice she tried to stand up out of eagerness, only to hit the ceiling of the small room and be forced back down, now kneeling. It did not stop her frantic banging on (what she assumed to be) the door.

"Let me out! Get me out. P-please, please get me out of here! I can't be in here! Help me please, Coulson, please! Please listen, get me out!"

"-but you have to stand back! Skye, do you hear me? I can't let you out unless you tell me you're away from the door! Skye!"

It came to Skye's attention that Coulson had been trying to focus her for a while, his words registering to her in a way that meant he'd already been speaking. She nodded quickly and retreated the few measly inches that were possible.

"I can't go far," she told him.

"That's ok. Just press yourself back as far as you can."

She did.

Then she saw a knife. It slid through the concrete metal enforced door before her as though slicing up a papaya.

How did she see it in the dark? Well, it was red. It was glowing, really, and Skye assumed it was hot.

It carved a roundish shape from the door where Skye assumed there must have been a lock, because moments later the door drifted open.

Coulson stood before her, heaving, holding the knife in his left hand. Which was the hand he didn't in fact have anymore. He must have had on one of his artificial limbs…

Wait.

The knife was coming from his arm.

The knife… _was_  his hand?

As suddenly as the thought had come into her mind it left as well. She'd been momentarily distracted since Coulson had apparently turned into Inspector Gadget right in front of her, but the reality of her situation rammed her like speeding truck the second she gave it another thought.

She heaved quick breaths. "I'm back," she said, her eyes wandering to her hands, clenched on the floor as she remained in the now open box. Eventually they found Coulson, found the concern in his features. He was scared and worried too. He was those things because he knew they were in trouble, and Skye couldn't find herself even trying to be brave. "I'm  _back_ ," she choked out, and buried her face in her hands.

And cried her eyes out.

She heard Coulson in front of her, cooing something along with his loud footsteps. The noise of warning wasn't the only reason she didn't flinch when he went inside to grab her, though. She just didn't care. Things couldn't get any worse, and her body was clearly turning off any alarms for her own safety at the moment.

She knew they would be back, though. Her terror would come back, and make her flinch and cower like a wounded animal.

The director hauled her out of the literal hole in the wall and set her gently to the ground, where she trembled, her hands grasping for anything they could latch on to. The found Coulson's shirt, pulling him close and he came the rest of the way. Gathering her in a hug, she found herself whispering her fears into his ear as he in turn whispered to her like parent, that it was going to be ok.

"It's not," she quietly responded with a sense of horrific reality she clearly wanted to get across. "It was never ok. I tried to get through it… I tried to be strong, and I wasn't and now it's worse. I brought you all down  _with me."_

"Shh Skye, shh. Just breath."

Tears were fogging up her vision. She could barely give a care to take a look at her surroundings, though she should. It was darker than usual, in this area.

Why had she been plopped into the hole? Why weren't they in the Courtyard?

Why was Coulson permitted to break her out?

Curiosity returning allowed herself to notice that she was calming down. As she clutched Coulson-who continued to stroke her back -she realized she'd been following his advice. Breathing.

"Ow!" she shouted suddenly, in agony, she realized belatedly. Her back stung bad, the feelings resonating from the middle like a pulse. She reached her hand behind herself and felt the sticky liquid.

She brought her palm to her face and even in the low light she could see the red. Even in no light she would know it was her own blood that was coating her fingers.

"Oh god," Coulson said, dropping her almost carelessly. Like she had turned into a sudden boiling pot. He looked to where his left hand should have been.

It was not a hand, nor a scalding knife. It was sharp as one though, with maybe four protruding edges. Some kind of weapon.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice thick and syrupy and lacking much enthusiasm. But at least she'd gotten rid of the shaking.

Coulson elected not to answer and instead hurried forward and gently turned her. Skye did not miss how he hid his left arm behind himself, only using the right to guide her. "Is it bad? There's not too much blood…"

Skye was on her side and held up by one hand, but the stinging sort of took over and she plopped down to her stomach.

"Skye? I'm so sorry," he said. "They did something to my hand and I can't control it… or remove it."

"S'ok," she replied, her words slurring despite herself. "It didn't feel deep."

"You don't look ok," he said.

"I…" Skye started and tried to look around. Everything tilted for a moment, but she closed her eyes. Willed herself to focus. "I'm ok."

She picked herself up. Her back ached, and the cut felt deeper than she knew it had any right to. Pressing into her back around the wound –it was to the far left, so it wasn't too difficult-, she found it felt akin to bruising.

Skye got to her feet with the help of Coulson's gentle touch. Once there, she carefully pried off the jacket she was wearing. She then rolled up her t-shirt to expose the hit portion of her lower back.

"How does it look?" she asked, turning away from Coulson before tilting her head back to see his expression.

He swallowed.

"Coulson?" she prompted. Suddenly aware of herself, she took one of the hands propping up her shirt and wiped her face of any remaining tears. "If you keep staring at me like that, I'm just going to assume it's really really bad."

"Skye it's… the cut is small, you're right. But it's swollen… You're really purple."

_"Purple?"_

"Like, Barney the dinosaur purple."

Skye let her shirt drop and turned. "Show me your hand."

"I can't," he said, his face draining of color when she'd suggested it. "I don't know what it will do. It's… uncontrollable."

"It did something to me, I think. If we could just look at it…"

"Quake is correct."

The voice originated from nowhere, so it seemed. Coulson and Skye's heads scanned upwards immediately. Eventually, she located the blue light. CAMI had been…  _installed_ here as well, it would seem.

"The weapon is called a 'venenum knife', in your tongue," CAMI explained. "It is a sharp object laced with poison."

"Poison?" Coulson gasped in upset. Bless his heart; he looked like he might be sick.

"Am I  _dying_?" Skye asked, with a snarky attitude to boot. Her hormones seemed to still be going nuts. Not to mention however messed up her mental state would be under these circumstances even if she hadn't been messed with drug-wise.

"Temporarily."

She tilted her head. "Temporarily as in… I will stop dying because I will be dead soon?"

"This is possible," CAMI replied evenly. "There is also an antidote."

"This wasn't an accident at all," Skye said presumptively, the ache in her back pulsing in waves that she was trying with difficultly to ignore. "You did something to him to make that go off on me."

"Quake is correct. Kane, Tobias would like to play a game using his new and recently returned belongings."

Red covered her vision and her thoughts. "Where are my friends?" she demanded.

"They have a separate start point. The game has many rules, and multiple ways to succeed. And fail."

"What are the rules?" asked Coulson.

"CAMI is not permitted to tell you the rules."

Skye could have laughed. How predictable of the infuriating AI. "This is what it does Coulson. Teases with information we're not allowed to know. I'm guessing I can't know what the antidote even looks like…?"

"Quake is correct."

"I hate you."

"I have no emotional feelings towards Quake, but her 'hate' is noted."

Skye sighed, resigned. She slowly lowered herself back on the ground, her back feeling as though it was adding a pound with every passing second.

"Skye?" Coulson asked gently. "If you can't move, I'll look-"

"Stop, please," she said, and Coulson gave her a stunned stare. Skye ran her hands through her hair to bide her small seconds before deciding how to continue. "I want to be done. I want you to be done. It's all a game. A mouse maze. They want me to suffer, to try, fail, suffer more… and then on the precipice of the death they'll tease me with they bring me back to start all over again." Skye looked at the blue light. "Well I quit. You hear me? I'm done playing!"

"Hey," Coulson said, but she allowed her eyes to continue drifting away. Soon enough she found fingers grasping her chin, swiveling her head back towards him. " _Hey._  You are not giving up. I just got you back."

She shook out of his grasp lightly and he let go. "And I'd go along with that, if you'd really gotten me back. Instead I just dragged you down with me!"

"No. He has something against SHIELD. Said so when he was… well, gloating."

"I heard him say that too," Skye muttered. She refocused, waving her hand. "Not that it matters. I just… I don't want to fight anymore."

"I know you're tired," he said. "I know you're scared and frustrated. But you have to keep going. If you don't want to do it for yourself… do it for all the others. They're here, somewhere. That thing said they have a different start point. We have to find them."

She turned away from him and considered. She was in pain, already feeling herself weakened by whatever was inside of her. To die would be so easy, now. She'd be lying if she'd said she didn't consider it most days she had been in that museum. But lying down and letting a poison take you to everlasting sleep is different then devising a plan for your own demise. Again, easy.

But Skye's life had never been easy.

His robotic limb still firmly behind his back, Coulson cupped her cheek. "I want you to do it for yourself but… just don't give up. Find the motivation somewhere to keep going."

"Ok," she conceded softly. "I'll… try."

She tried to punctuate her words by standing, the pain near taking her down. Coulson helped her. She wanted to cry and stomp on the ground. She wanted to scream in frustration. Every time she thought she was being given an inch they took three feet of slack from her.

But she was alive. For Coulson, for her friends… she could take the pain for one more day, right?

Standing felt like half the battle, but realistically it had most likely been about a thousandth of it.

"What do we do?" Skye asked. "We don't know where to start."

Coulson opened his mouth, but the answer did not come from there. It came from the side, where a low, unnaturally coy voice sounded.

"Uh, maybe here."

"Mack!" Skye exclaimed to the best of her ability. She was already weak.

"Thank god," Coulson sighed in relief. He began walking towards him, Skye hobbling at his side.

Skye's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Why are you staying around the corner?"

He cleared his throat. "So I… think I've got a bit of a problem."

"I doubt it's worse than an uncontrollable robot hand with knives that spontaneously appear," Coulson attempted to joke.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. But I know they hurt like hell."

"We'll try to help," Skye offered. He didn't move. "But you have to like, show us."

There was a loud, resentful sigh, but Mack did, eventually, step forward.

Skye's mouth dropped open like a dead fish.

"Well," said Coulson lightly, "that's new."


	2. A Pig in a Poke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz and Bobbi wake up in a strange place and come to find that something is off about both of them.

"Bobbi. Bobbi, wake  _up_."

"Oh…"

"Bloody hell, finally."

 _Finally?_  Morse was pretty sure she really could have used a few more hours - or days, maybe – of rest.

Fitz definitely was impatient though.

She called to mind what had caused her passing out. She could be positive but most likely it had been brought about by drugs they'd given her while she was still immobile.

Her limbs seemed to be working now.

And she definitely had feeling in her body. That she was sure of, as Fitz persistently was tapping away at her cheek.

"I'm up, Fitz!" she exclaimed, batting him away gently.

"Well, you groaned a few times earlier, rolled your eyes and went back to snoozing. I wanted to be sure!" he stated, huddling his arms a bit together. "It's nerve-wracking here."

Bobbi hauled herself up so that she was sitting, her arms supporting her as she glanced about. They were in a dimly lit, dank room. Industrial building, by the looks of the walls. Even a possible storage space. There were bits of broken tech lying around, but the odd part was the plethora of plants that grew out of nearly every corner.

Odd, because there didn't seem to be a speck of dirt.

"I can see why," she muttered, the room's appearance making her warier than she had been upon waking up in this undisclosed location. "You seen any of the others?"

"No," Fitz admitted. "We're locked in here. But there's something I need to-"

"Where exactly _is_  here?" she asked.

Fitz shrugged. "Well it's not as though I picked out the décor, but it appears to be a sort of greenhouse."*

"In a storage room?" Bobbi asked. "That doesn't make sense. There's not even a window."

"Yeah, I noticed. Just a door, one way out."

"No. I meant… how could the plants grow if there isn't any light?"

"Ah yeah, that's true. It's cold as well," Fitz pointed out, exemplifying it by hugging his arms together once again and shivering.

Then something moved.

"What was that?" Bobbi swiveled her head towards the sound, trying to leap up on instinct. Of course that was easier said than done with her knee, but Fitz helped her to her feet immediately when he noticed her small struggle.

"I think… I don't think it's much of anything really."

Bobbi turned back to him. "You heard that right? Did you see it?"

"It's probably just the room settling. Bobbi, come back!"

But she was already creeping closer. "It's not like the psycho trapped us in here to sit and play Patty Cake Fitz," she whispered as she moved. "We need to be ready for anyth- whoa!"

A large metal… well, a large metal something-rather flew towards her. Bobbi had to dodge sideways to just narrowly miss the object.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Fitz said in haste as it clattered to the ground. "I don't get how it works…"

"What?" Bobbi breathed in confusion. "How what works?" She paused. "Were you controlling that thing?"

"I-I think so."

"You  _think_  so? Do you have a remote or something?"

"No, Bobbi.  _I'm_  controlling it. With these. With my hands!" He shook his palms out at her in show, but the only response she could think of was to blink.

"That's… weird. Wait, what?"

Well, she also had that fantastic response up her sleeve.

Fitz sighed, gesturing sheepishly around the room. "Whenever I make sudden movements and such, the tech in the room moves about!"

Bobbi shook her head in disbelief. "Kane must have put something on you." She looked him up and down. Same Fitz-y clothes, but one accessory she didn't think he put on himself. "The armlets. They must be controlling them."

"Yeah, maybe…" Fitz conceded. Doubtfully.

"What?" she asked.

He held up his palms once again. This time, Bobbi noted what she should have the first time. Small cuts, sewn up with stitches. Incisions.

"I think they operated." He held up hair on the top of his forehead that he'd allowed to grow out a bit, and Bobbi saw a red line up there as well. "My head's been similarly sore to my hands. There one up there as well?"

Bobbi was having a hard time taking it all in. Barely able to answer, she just shook her head.

He dropped his arm. "I think  _these_ ," he shook the cuffs, "are the off switch. Like what Skye and Lincoln had. They're just not activated at the moment."

Bobbi stood, stunned, for a few moments. "Right. Ok. So they gave you man-made superpowers."

"Yeah, I think so," Fitz said, nodding.

"Right," Bobbi repeated. This was strange. So strange. But her first guess had been that Kane would off them because they didn't fit the bill for his powered-people collection. So she supposed being  _made_  to fit the bill was better than the alternative.

"And um… I hate to break it to you, but…" Fitz pointed at her arms, which she had foolishly not so much as glanced to see yet.

A tight, tough material covered her wrists up to her elbows.

"What the hell?" she said, beginning to pad and pry at them in curiosity.

"That must be your off switch," said Fitz.

"I have powers too?" she nearly whispered, in awe.

Almost, maybe… excitement.

Ok, so it was probably not good when the guy who gave you super powers only wanted you to have them so you could fight other people to the death, but… super powers? It was kind of cool. Had it not been for the unprecedented kidnapping, Skye could have helped SHIELD get back on top with such an advantage. And after so long on the DL, Bobbi could use some advantage.

But again, kidnapping. As Bobbi was now in the same boat.

"I think so…" Fitz mused, suddenly circling her. "No incision scars I can see. You feel anything?"

"Mmm. No," she answered, just able to hide the disappointment.

"Hmm. Can I see your arms?" he asked. She held them out for him. "Aha! There."

Bobbi looked at the crook of her elbow to see that it was beginning to bruise, a small puncture wound in the center.

"A injection," said Fitz.

"Oh. So whatever my powers are, they won't be permanent. If they shot me up with it. I mean, it's gotta filter through at some point."

"Wouldn't think they'd have to be long-lasting," said Fitz. "If Kane didn't feel like investing too much… Could prefer killing us off faster."

Bobbi tried to conceal what was somewhat of a letdown. She flexed her hand, shot out her arm a couple times like Skye would do when she'd use her power. She tried working them like Lincoln's, too.

Nothing.

"Maybe it didn't work." She shrugged. "But yours… how long have you been awake? What exactly can you do?"

A small smile crept onto Fitz's face. "Actually, it's kind of cool. I mean, it was a bit scary at first but now that you're awake it's not… as much. Here."

Fitz stepped over to a pile of rubble, Bobbi following close behind. He pushed his hand out in front of himself and immediately a few of the broken circuit boards began to move, float, and spark.

For a moment a computer monitor even lit up.

He kept his hand raised and face strained, but they powered down mere moments after he'd gotten them to come to life.

"Wow," admonished Bobbi. "That's… crazy."

"Yeah I know. And if they weren't broken… I could, I t _hink_ , surf the net or work a machine without even touching it!"

"Seriously?" asked Bobbi. "Maybe we can piece something together; help get us out of here. Think you'd be up for it?"

Fitz might have gotten his powers mere minutes earlier, had not a clue how to use them, and the fear probably even showed on his face… but he nodded hard. "Definitely."

Bobbi smiled and moved forth to pick through the fragments. She brushed a few vines and flowers out of her path to get to some stuff she saw behind them. One with thorns and red roses was particularly difficult to get through, as-

"Whoa, Bobbi stop!"

"What?" she asked urgently, turning around.

"The flowers!" He pointed. "Look!"

She did. They were fine, still all flora-ish and blooming.

But not… the same.

They were black and white almost.

"Did I take away their colors?" she mumbled, nearly to herself as she scrutinized the plants before her. A few roses on the vine were still red, even though the vine's green itself was nearly faded completely to grey. She slowly moved her pointer finger forward, tapping the nearest flower.

And sucked the red right out of it.

She immediately looked to her fingers and saw the red swirl into her palm, where it mixed with the green. Kind of like food dye being stirred in a bowl. The colors didn't sit on her skin like a liquid, but more just under the surface enough to pigment it. She rubbed her fingers together.

"Wow," said Fitz, in awe as he watched the red and green dance in her hand. "That's amazing."

"But what does it do?" she said. She tried to flick out her hand once again, but the colors continued to merely rotate in her palm.

"Well what does it feel like?"

She shrugged. "Sort of tickles." Kneeling down, Bobbi placed her palm on the ground and wiped it there. It had been a wild guess, but the colors sprang off of her skin immediately and coated the floor. Almost like a painting in the way she had laid them there, but they seemed to mesh with the floor. Like it had actually been manufactured as the red and green pattern she pictured in her mind as she laid her hand down.

She sat back on her haunches.

"That's it?"

"Oh c'mon… that's pretty cool! You can turn things into black and white and paint whatever you'd like."

"Ok… would you be up for trading?"

"Uh. No, not particularly."

"Exactly. Having an artsy power isn't going to help us get out of here."

"Unfortunately, it won't help you get away from me, either!" came a sudden shout.

The new voice was followed by a somewhat shrill squeal and a pained yelp, the latter of which Bobbi noted had come from her mouth. She realized this belatedly, as she was somewhat too preoccupied with being suddenly launched upside down and dangled there.

A vine from one of the plants had literally shot out at them. It had then proceeded to wrap around each set of their legs and hoist them nearly to the ceiling. Fitz's exclamation had been in surprise, but the yanking on Bobbi's knee had hurt like hell.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the worst of their worries.

"It's so fun finding out about your new powers… what you can do with them," the voice continued as Bobbi and Fitz began to struggle in the binds. Both were clearly desperate to get down. "I know I had fun with mine. Still do, in fact."

"Who are yo-" Fitz started, but his sentence was cut off by a vine coiling like a snake up his body, ending by muffling his mouth.

"Rude," said the man simply, whose voice was calm as though he were merely peeved the line at the DMV was so long. "Patience, I was getting to the introductions. I'd like to learn who you two are as well…

"But me, you can call Timberius."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make my day :D Thanks for the ones on the first chapter!


	3. Fish Out of Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May finds a few members of her team.

_"Oh god, help! Someone help me!"_

_May heard the startled cries, pleas, echo through the streets. Round and round she went, searching, but every moment the voice seemed farther away._

_Closer, actually._

_Farther._

_Same distance? But to the left._

_"Urgh!" she exclaimed in upset. "How am I supposed to help you if I can't find you," she growled to herself._

_"Help me!" shrieked the woman. Melinda heard a child crying along with the wails, and turned around._

_She was before a large building, foreboding and indomitable._

_Up in one of the highest windows May saw it: the woman holding her child. A little girl, it by the looks of it. May had to get up there._

_May was on top floor, searching. The screams were reverberating and changing again. Still she moved onward through the vacant halls._

_The last door was black. Liquid almost, with strange markings. It did not have a door handle._

_Until it did._

_The liquid bubbled and morphed until the knob came into view. Melinda opened the door._

_The woman. May knew her as Eva. May knew her as the woman who brought her straight to her worst nightmare. She must have been the lady in the window, but there was no sign of the child in her arms._

_And Eva was dead._

_Stone cold and sprawled on the floor of the old rackety building._

_"Hello, Melinda."_

_May spun about at the voice._

_"Katya?" she whispered._

_"Why did you kill me, Melinda?"_

_May stepped back._

_"You were killing other people. Hurting them, and it had to stop."_

_"But you killed me."_

_"I…"_

_"I only wanted pain, and you put a bullet in my head," she said, as though only slightly irked by the information. Which was odd, considering the bullet hole was there now. May could see it. Could see the blood._

_"I'm sorry."_

_Katya smiled, wicked and sly. "No you're not," she told May simply. "But you will be. I still want your pain."_

_The little girl reached forward to touch May. To caress her, a child searching out a protector._

_And May screamed._

Oh no, not in reality. Of course not. May would never scream out loud with her training. Which was when she realized she was of course unconscious, and therefore when her eyes opened.

Melinda took a moment to calm her nerves. The dream might not have been real, and she certainly wouldn't allow it to take over her, but it had rattled more than usual. So it would appear.

It wasn't like these emotions didn't plague her near every night. That was in fact how she got so good handling pain, taking things stoically. She kept a tight lid on emotions that rampaged within her nearly all the time, only using them to fuel her fight.

Still, she couldn't shake the aftershock of the dream. As though she was terrified, right now, in this instant, because something new and horrible was happening.

Which… could be true. But there wasn't a great sense of urgency to waking up on the concrete ground without an immediate threat.

May hauled herself up to her elbows and took a look around. There were benches at the walls, tables to one side, and an old TV it seemed. None of it looked like it had been used in months, but the area almost appeared to be a mass waiting room.

"He-lp!" May heard and she perked up immediately. This time, it was real.

It was Simmons.

"Someone tell me- te-lell me what's going on!"

Jemma kept getting interrupted. Her words would cut off in a strangled sound, and Melinda did not like the options that came to mind of what could be happening to the scientist. May was nervous and terrified for the young woman, hitting her with an amount of fear that nearly took the cap off of her well-hid emotions.

May ran.

"Simmons!" she shouted. "Jemma! Where are you?"

"May!" Simmons exclaimed, and before Melinda could have readied herself for any such attack Jemma slammed into her with a hug. "Oh god, thank  _god_."

"Jemma! You scared me half to death," she huffed out.

May was relieved, but also still pretty terrified. She couldn't fathom why. Yes, the situation was scary, but hell if she couldn't push away her feelings to focus on what needed her attention. And Simmons was right in front of her! That was a good thing. A great thing. Thank goodness they weren't alone.

"I'm sorry!" Jemma apologized, then stopping short. "Wait,  _I_  scared  _you_?"

"Yes!" May exclaimed.

Wait.  _Yes?_

"Well I'm bloody frightened to hell!"

"What's going on?" May asked. "I heard you screaming."

Jemma sniffled and all of May's sympathy went out for the girl. "There's something wrong with me. They must have done something to me!"

"What are you talking about?" Melinda asked, confused.

"I keep… I can't control it!" she wailed, shaking her head desperately. God, May was so scared for her. "There's a phenomenon randomly happening with my body that seems to-"

May's panic, fear, nervousness, every scared little emotion that dwelled inside her peaked like she had just tipped over the high point of a roller coaster. She gasped.

Because Simmons disappeared.

Almost. It was so fast. She vanished, so it seemed, and wisped away, leaving some sort of trail behind her that then lagged along with her.

It was odd.

"Simmons?" she called, looking around once again.

"I'm right here!" she shouted, but her voice sounded far off. May jogged forwards down one of the hallways that led out from the room, finally coming upon Jemma. The girl was standing, hands outstretched, as though trying to keep her balance on a precarious surface.

"What are you doing?" May asked bluntly.

"Trying not to move!" exclaimed Jemma. "Perhaps it won't happen again if I don't make any sudden-"

Gone again.

And again came that horrible feeling. But Simmons would be right around the corner!

…hopefully.

It did take a little longer searching this time and May had to be wary. She called Jemma's name for while but the farther she ventured into this labyrinth the more she stayed quiet in case of any unwanted visitors.

Simmons did not have the same tactic. No, she wasn't calling Melinda's name, but she wasn't exactly being quiet as a mouse either.

"-and she's around here somewhere. Though honestly, she's acting a bit odd."

"Melinda May is acting odd?"

May stopped in her tracks, finally able to see the pair.

"Lincoln?"

They two turned. "There she is!" said Jemma.

"I'm glad you're ok," Lincoln said, though judging by his voice, he didn't sound glad of anything. May was right there with him. She felt like she'd been through this before, which she had, but it felt like she'd moved into the aftermath of her worst day ever.

Like she'd just walked out of that building in Bahrain.

"Have you guys seen Skye?" Lincoln asked.

"No," May said, her voice hallowed as she suddenly felt extreme concern for Skye. For everyone really, but Skye… god she'd already been traumatized here!

"You're shaking, May," Jemma said in a quiet awe.

Lincoln was too, she'd already noted. But the kid was actually back in his worst nightmare too. Months under that sadistic man's control and here he was, right back in it. He could be having a break down on the inside.

May nearly was.

"I was drugged," Melinda stated. It only made sense, she was definitely having too hard of a time keeping her feelings under wraps. And even May with all her experience had to admit that when under the influence, it could change your perceptions and how easily you could control yourself.

"That actually would explain a lot. How do you know?" asked Simmons.

"Because it would explain a lot," said May."

"Ah."

"So  _that's_  not good.  _These_  might be even worse-" Lincoln said, raising his hands to bring rubber gloves into view, showcasing a clear lack of powers. "And our whole predicament is pretty bad but- are we not going to talk about how Jemma just brought me through a wall?"

"She was able to bring you through with her?"

Lincoln blinked. "Ok, so only that part was news to you I guess."

"It's all still pretty new," May said.

"I didn't mean to!" exclaimed Jemma as though she were being blamed. "I just happened to be touching him…"

"It was a good thing though. I woke up locked in Box two. No one could hear me."

"Wait. This is the  _exact_ place you and Skye were?" asked Jemma.

Lincoln nodded. "The first place we were at." He paled, and May could swear she felt how the word 'we' reminded him the woman he'd been prisoner with was in here somewhere. "We need to find Skye…"

"What is this man playing at?" exclaimed Jemma.

"Actually, Dr. Jemma Simmons, you are the players in this game."

CAMI the AI's voice boomed through the halls.

"What?" asked Simmons, dumbfounded.

"Kane, Tobias, has created a gameplay for you. You are the players in this game."

"We're not going to play anything!" exclaimed Lincoln, rage that was apparently contagious as May felt the fury pulsing through the kid's voice. "We're not damn dolls, we've been over this before!"

"Static has not learned. He will, given time."

May saw the angry tears in Lincoln's eyes as he shook his head, disgusted.

She felt them on her own face.

"What did he do to me?" Simmons demanded, her voice shaky. "Why am I able to go through solid matter!"

"Kane, Tobias sought to improve the game by changing factors. Beings with natural powers are handicapped, while other players have been given gifts."

"I don't want a gift!" Jemma exclaimed. "And how on earth could that even  _happen_?"

"Dr. Simmons had an easy surgery, her body already having gone through portal teleportation helped ease the molecule modification."

"Surgery!"

May could sense Jemma's upset all too well and tried to veer her off the angry path she was walking down. "Is there a reason I didn't get powers?" asked May.

"Melinda May has received powers," the blue light informed her. "She is now capable of feeling the emotions of those around her."

May almost flinched back in shock, instead creasing her brow. The other two scrutinized her.

"Oh that's interesting," Jemma said in awe.

"And completely useless…" mumbled Melinda.

"Well I don't even know how to control mine!"

"CAMI will leave now, her time restrictions have been reached," the voice said. "Good luck."

May was still contemplating what the thing meant… how it could have accomplished it. When she looked over to Lincoln, he was staring down, eyes unfocused. May felt what she could only explain as a dark abyss inside herself and now knew it must be Lincoln's absolute lack of hope.

"But we don't even know how to play!" whined Jemma to the light even after it had turned off.

"That's why it's  _fun_ to these people," Lincoln scoffed. "He wants us to be clueless. To lose."

"These people?" questioned Simmons.

Lincoln shrugged. "We've always had an audience of some kind."

"Cameras," May said, a cursory once over of the area telling her all she needed to know once Lincoln had brought it up. "They're nearly invisible, but they're here. Mainly the ceiling."

All three of them looked up, studying. In fact they were still looking up when May felt a small tug in her head, followed by panic and confusion.

"Ah," she groaned quietly at the unpleasant feeling.

"What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"There's another person in my head," she said. "I feel  _more_  emotions."

"Well I am certainly feeling a plethora of such…" Simmons guessed.

"No, they're from another person," said May. She would never be able to explain it, but she could just  _tell_  where the emotions were originating. She began to walk, cautiously, through the compound. They became stronger and stronger until she came upon a wall.

Which there was a door next to.

"There's a person in there?" asked Lincoln.

May nodded. "I think so."

Jemma walked up to the door and immediately knocked. "Hello?" she called. "Anyone in there!" When no one heard a noise Simmons pressed her ear up to it. "I don't hear anything."

Lincoln tried the handle. "It's locked."

They both looked to Simmons.

"Well?" prompted Lincoln.

"What? Go through the door? We haven't a clue what's inside!"

"We know that it's someone that's scared and panicked," said May, mirroring the emotions currently being broadcast into her mind. She didn't want to make Simmons do anything she didn't want to, but it could be their team. It could be  _anyone_  actually, and she didn't want them submitted to whatever was making her feel the terrible emotions broadcast into her mind.

"They could be scared because there might be a bloody bear in there for all we know, and- oh, fine! You're right, I'm just nervous trying to use these…"

"You got your powers all of a few minutes ago, so I'd say it qualifies as understandable," said Lincoln.

"Thanks," Jemma replied, though her voice was tight with nerves. "Wish me luck!"

With that, she stepped into the wall.

Fear turned to relief but surprise and panic heightened as well, and she was back a few moments later with her cargo. Which were a couple things.

One: Lance Hunter. Coughing and sputtering and drenched as a drowned rat. Which brought up the second thing: a good chunk of water came through the wall with them.

Jemma was soaked as well as she supported Hunter, the water that had come with them quickly dispersed onto the ground so that neither Lincoln or May got very wet at all. They were about to though, both rushing forward to help Jemma with her rescue.

Hunter was breathing too heavily to get a word out it seemed, but Simmons jumped over him any way.

"The entire room was a pool!" she exclaimed. "No ledge. Just water."

 _"Deep_  water," huffed Hunter. "No way you could get a rest in there. I owe you one for snagging me, Simmons."

"Not a problem," Jemma said with confidence, despite her fears earlier.

"One question though, because I think I might be more oxygen deprived than I realized: how _exactly_ did you get me out?"

"Ah, right," Jemma started slowly. "Well, it would appear that Kane artificially manufactured May and I with some kind of powers. Mine enable me to walk through walls."

"Ok…" Hunter said, ultimately puzzled. "Can't say I was expecting that. Why the hell would he give you two powers?" he paused. "Why didn't he give me powers!"

Simmons gave him an almost sympathetic look. "Well, I can't speak as to why he wouldn't give you any but-"

Jemma was cut off quite abruptly. A sound, a loud sound, one that made May's ears ring, echoed through the walls. It was definitely something May figured they should avoid, but she wasn't sure they'd be able to.

Hunter gave them another questioning stare. "So if anyone wants to clue me in at some point, that would be fantastic."

Lincoln looked back from staring at the origin of the noise, stating in a grave voice, "He gave them powers because we have a game to play."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh good, now we know what everyone's up to! Some people are asking for Staticquake so I'll definitely try to sneak extra of that in here ;)
> 
> Thank you for comments!!!


	4. Gift Horse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finding Mack, Coulson and Skye find themselves amongst their first challenge.

"Mack you… you're…" Skye huffed. " _Why?"_

"You think I know? I just woke up like this!"

Coulson couldn't help but step forward to observe the strange sight. "They've been surgically implanted…"

"Who surgically implants  _bull horns_  on someone?" exclaimed Skye.

Good thing she'd finally brought it up, because if somebody didn't say the words out loud Coulson didn't think he'd be able to believe his own vision.

But yeah. Two, sturdy animal horns took up residence on Mack's forehead, angry red blossoming beneath them.

"I'm guessing it's the same guy obsessed enough with gifteds to collect them," Mack said.

"Good guess…" mumbled Skye bitterly. Coulson watched as she tried to inconspicuously sit back down on the ground, but her pained hiss and odd behavior was obvious as a beacon.

"Ah, damn things itch too," Mack complained fairly loudly. Not that he didn't have a right to. He batted lightly at his head.

Skye smiled weakly out of the blue. "You know Mack, I always knew you were-"

"Don't say it, Tremors…"

"-bullheaded, but I didn't think it went this far."

Mack sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. "You had to go there, didn't you?"

"What can I say? I'm PMS-ing to the max and currently in the process of dying. My filter is pretty much non-existent."

Mack's look of annoyance took nearly no time at all to turn concerned. "What do you mean you're in the process of dying?"

Skye tilted her body, showing him the increasingly swelling wound on her lower back. "Poisoned."

Mack's eyes grew large.

"Which is why we need to move," said Coulson. "There's an antidote somewhere if we can get to it."

"Um, are we just going to ignore the animal amenity popping out of Mack's forehead then? Because… I'll admit, I'd have a pretty hard time with that."

"Or maybe we're ignoring that there's no way Skye can move much of anywhere," said Mack as he observed her state.

"Can so!" she bit back immediately, scowling. "I won't be the one to drag anyone down. I'm sure I can beat Mr. Cow here."

"Skye, try to calm down," said Coulson. Her anger was coming out once again and though he knew there was little he could do to control a traumatized, drug-induced person's emotions, he could hope to focus her. "You know you're hurt."

It was all too apparent too.  _She_ might as well have had some large pointy object protruding out of her own head for the blatancy of it. Every time she spoke it was labored and her breaths came in pants.

"Yeah, but I'm not a damsel in distress. I'll keep up. I might just… hang back if we run into any fights. Maybe Mack can just stampede them down."

Mack sighed. "You aren't done yet?"

"Trust me, there's plenty more where that came from, oh master of nicknames."

As much as their banter was uplifting, Coulson couldn't help but want to get a start on looking for the cure to help Skye. He hated to see her in pain and soon it would be worse.

You know what didn't help? A large, formidable net swooping down out of the blue, covering Skye and hauling her to the ceiling.

They called out to her immediately, even grasping at the web before it had retracted, but it had all happened far too quickly.

"It's ok guys!" Skye assured them soon enough, after hanging there long enough for the net to slow its shifting. Her hands clung to the object as she peered down at them. "I mean… my back still hurts and now I appear to be the fresh catch of the day, but I'm ok." She took another deep breath, the long sentence perhaps winding her. "Right… so I know I said I'm not a damsel in distress, but…"

"We'll get you down!" Coulson hollered up at her.

"Thanks," she breathed, almost in relief. As if they were going to consider leaving her. With that reassurance she leaned back in the net, letting herself relax despite the situation.

Coulson couldn't help but think it was the poison and drugs keeping Skye so placid and inattentive. He didn't like it.

"Uh, sir," said Mack. " _How_  are we going to get her down?"

Coulson shrugged. "I'm not sure. I actually had a tool in my hand but I'd rather not use that limb at all if we can…. If we can avoid it."

Coulson hoped his pause seemed to be caused by the fact that he was nervous for something to come, and not that he'd happened to catch Mack's bullhorns in his sights once again. They just… caught him off guard.

"Whoa, Coulson!" Skye shrieked suddenly, bracing herself against the net.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Ok, so she was still in a net hovering about twenty feet off the ground, but just moments earlier she wasn't immediately alarmed by that.

"It uh…" she started, unsurely. "I thought it moved again. Never mind." She paused. "You know how when you're trying to go to sleep and you feel like you're falling so you sort of jerk? It was kind of like-"

Then she yelped again.

"Skye!" shouted Mack in clear concern.

But Skye was already gone, being shot away by the fast-moving net that Phil could now see was on some sort of pulley system.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Coulson. They both ran to trail the thing that was quite literally zooming through the air. They'd kept up with it ok.

Until it disappeared into the ceiling.

"Coulson!" Skye cried one last time with disarming fear, before vanishing upwards. He supposed it made sense for the thing to take her into the ceiling then, as the net's path had been cut short by an abrupt wall. But it was still not good.

"No…" he whispered.

What were they supposed to do? Skye had been poisoned and they were supposed to be getting the antidote. If they took her away there was no way Phil could get her the cure in time.

"Mack, we need to get her back now. Start looking for something to climb-"

"There's a door right here," he said. "It looked like the thing carrying her went sideways… if it came back down, she could be in this room."

Coulson wasn't entirely keen on going into random door led by mysterious nets carrying his agents, but there was no way he wouldn't check it out.

"Let's go."

Mack pushed on the door handle he'd already been keeping a grip on so that it opened wide.

And showed another door.

But not just a door. A sort of lift door, with cage bars behind it. Something that would ensure whatever was being put inside would not be able to come back out the way it had came.

Then it hit him. He knew exactly where they were because Skye had described it to him mere hours earlier.

"This is the arena," said Coulson, but remembered Mack had only heard part of the story. "They forced Skye and Lincoln to fight other gifteds in here."

"They brought her back to the exact same place?" asked Mack, making Coulson only feel worse that he'd let Skye slip away so quickly. "Man, that's messed up."

Coulson nodded in agreement. He then saw a switch on the wall and hit it immediately, causing only the back part of the door to open.

"Only one of us can go inside," he said. "The other has to stay out here to operate this."

"I'll go," Mack said readily.

"I would normally agree with you, but I'm guessing we both know what's going to happen in there." Phil held up his hand. "I have no idea what this thing can do, but whatever it does, it's dangerous." He dropped his arm and looked up at Mack in all seriousness. "If I'm facing anyone that has the slightest part to play in taking Skye again, that's really all I care about."

"Right," Mack said, nodding. Coulson stepped in. "Give 'em hell."

Mack slammed his hand on the switch and closed Coulson inside the small space. After hitting it again the next door and bars opened up.

Coulson walked into the large arena, stands desolate and dismembered as though abandoned long ago. He supposed it  _had_ been months.

There was still all that Skye had described. The comfy box for Kane to sit in, the dirt floor, the scoreboard- where a small, unconscious figure had been draped.

"Skye!" Coulson exclaimed, running forward.

He was distracted, quite so, by the rumbling run of a man bolting from the other area door. He cut in front of Coulson who stopped far short of Skye.

"Can't let you do that," he said.

"Carl Creel," Coulson whispered in awe. "They got you back."

The man laughed, almost hysterically. "Of course they did! When am I ever free, thanks to you people," he spat. "First Hydra, SHIELD, the government and now  _this."_

Phil held out a hand to placate him. "Think about this, Mr. Creel. You're not being controlled by Hydra anymore, and when we get out of here SHIELD can help you!"

He smiled cynically. "You know, I usually hate this. That they make me do this. Hurt innocents, kids!" he exclaimed, his hand motioning for Skye. "But getting back at one of the people who ruined my life… it might not be so bad."

Phil thought the redemption boat had pretty much sailed at that point, and began mentally preparing himself for what was to come.

Creel reached down, touched the floor, and began to dematerialize.

Not completely. But his skin shifted into particles as he became akin to dirt. Actually, Phil knew he was becoming exactly dirt.

Coulson wasn't entirely sure why he would do that – dirt wasn't particularly strong- until he morphed his hand. He was able to deconstruct it with such a versatile material, apparently.

Phil could barely move before the hand wrapped around his throat like a snake. It squeezed him easily, the rough dirt tendrils morphing and moving beneath him.

Creel threw him to the ground, advancing immediately for the next strike. But Coulson shot his hand out. His  _new_  hand.

He wasn't even entirely sure what it was going to do. He'd tried to get it back to the knife that had cut Skye out of her prison earlier. The one that was hot and sharp.

He thrust it out and up, slicing Creel right through his arm. The particles of Creel's skin moved around Coulson's strike, though it did seem to melt or make some of the man's arm hot. Creel cried out and Coulson was able to use the distraction to get to his feet.

But then…

Creel changed again. To metal. Glowing red hot metal that Coulson could only match to a small portion with his hand.

And when you're faced with the sight of a man that could virtually not be defeated and kill you with one touch, you sort of begin to lose hope. That everything was a lost cause. That losing your hand really had been only a bad thing and the cool gadgets that came with it didn't matter.

Because clearly he was going to die.

In his peripherals he saw Skye move. She'd regained consciousness, at least in part, and looked up at him with tired eyes. He'd told her not to give up, just a little while ago. He heard Mack behind him, screaming and chanting for Coulson not to surrender.

So he didn't.

Coulson wasn't entirely sure how, but brought the sharp ball that had poisoned Skye back into play. He supposed it had to do with thinking about the object as that seemed to be what was working.

He held it out for Creel to see. "Hey, I know my robotic hand," he lied. "And I happen to know that if hot, scolding knife is paper, then spikey ball is scissors."

He charged at Creel with his weapon held forward. The man grasped his wrist to stop him.

His  _wrist_ , not his hand.

Coulson couldn't help the pained shout that burst through him as he burned. But, his plan hadn't completely failed. Creel still couldn't help but grab the shiny ball and absorb its effects.

He let go of Coulson and fell to the ground.

"What… what is that?" he asked, trembling. He grabbed the ground and morphed to dirt immediately, but it was clear the damage had been done.

"Poison," Phil answered sadly. "I'm sorry, you left me no choice."

He laughed hysterically. "You know, that girl was left with the same choice…" Creel choked out, shaking and trembling. "and she- she…"

He couldn't get the words out. The poison must have spread through his body much faster than it had to Skye because he only coughed a few more moment. Then he was still.

Coulson couldn't be positive the man was dead, but it sure seemed that way. He hoped it he wasn't. Carl really had just gotten the short straw many paths of life, even if Coulson hadn't realized it enough to try and tend to the man in the past.

But he couldn't dwell long, because out of the two dying people in the room Skye was certainly his focus.

He ran to her unmoving form, terrified he'd find just as still of a heart. He didn't. It pulsed, she was alive. Her back was a swollen lump and her broken breaths were labored, but she was alive.

Coulson prepared to carry her back to Mack. He had no clue what they could do for her, but their best chance was when they were together-

"Congratulations, Phillip Coulson. You have defeated the first challenge."

Coulson glared up at the AI, nearly snarling. "I don't accept congratulations for killing men!"

CAMI paused. "Does this infer that Phillip Coulson does not want his prize?"

His face softened, his hand still lying on Skye's body in preparation to lift her. "What prize?"

"The antidote."

Coulson's eyebrows rose in shot. Already, they were giving him the cure? What would be the prize of the other challenges?

He decided it was best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The wall opened up beside him to reveal a small syringe. Coulson dove for it only to be immediately struck by a forcefield type wall.

"What the-"

"CAMI is not certain Phillip Coulson wants his prize."

"Yes. Yes! I want it!"

The forcefield immediately blinked away in a shimmer and Phil grabbed for the syringe.

"Where does it go? Will she be fine once I give it to her?"

"This is the end of CAMI's programming, here. Good luck with the next challenge."

"Wait!" he called, but the blue light blinked away.

"Damn it!" he muttered, preparing the plunger. He didn't know anything about it, but by Skye's current state she didn't have a lot of time left. He pushed it into the area of her back that had been hurt.

The result was… nearly instantaneous. The purple stopped progressing and perhaps even dimmed. Skye's eyes opened soon after. They were wild and panicked.

"Hey."

"Hi," she said in a small voice, nearly breathless. Scared. "We're still here?"

Coulson felt his heart break as he nodded.

She scowled, her face the makeup of an angry child. But he knew there was so much more depth behind her emotions that that. She breathed in shallow strokes and Coulson was certain it was the signs of an oncoming panic attack.

"Skye, the AI told me this was an antidote. That you're not sick anymore."

He wasn't sure about that. Maybe it only slowed the process, how could he know?

But Skye didn't seem to react to the information at all. She took a deep breath, all of a sudden. "I need Lincoln," she choked out. "I need everyone. But I  _need_ Lincoln!"

"Ok, we'll find them. We'll find him."

"This isn't fair to him," she said, shaking her head. "I should be there-"

"We'll find him Skye," he repeated. "We'll go get Mack and then we'll find the rest of them."

A strange noise occurred then. Somewhat like a "vwarp" sounding thing, causing Skye and Coulson to turn their heads to face whatever threat it was.

Turned out it wasn't a threat.

Simmons, as if out of nowhere, was standing before them in the middle of the arena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving the story along a bit faster than I had imagined... but I feel like you guys want Lincoln and Skye together sooner. Uh.. about Mack's 'power'... I felt like at least one of them needed to be slightly ridiculous, as I wanted the powers as varied as possible.


	5. Lame Ducks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Bobbi and Fitz try to defeat Timberius, they are helped out by an unexpected ally.

"Fitz are you ok?" Bobbi whispered.

Leo nodded his head. It was all he could do, mouth still wrapped up from that guy's powers. The situation had gone from scary to terrifying as the threat manifested in front of their faces.

Unlike Kane and despite his flamboyant first appearance, this Timberius guy didn't like talking as much as the other villain.

He certainly seemed quite as psychopathic though.

He'd been circling them for minutes, sizing them up it seemed, then walked around the room. Bobbi stayed silent and Fitz couldn't use his words, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Let's see, who wants to fight first…" the man drawled.

"Well," Bobbi started, "do you want a challenge or an easy out? Because we can give you either."

Her voice was strong and flippant enough, but Bobbi's tough girl act was undermined by the way she dangled and spun in a slow circle. Fitz knew he was in the same boat and couldn't help but feel ridiculous. It was a good thing his mouth was tied shut; he wouldn't know what to say that would sound brave as opposed to silly at the moment.

The man walked up to Bobbi. "Oh, I'd take the challenge. Considering neither will actually be challenging. You're both too green."

Bobbi shrugged - best she could in the circumstances. "Then why bother?"

"Kane asked it of me," he answered plainly.

"And you listen to him because…? Seems pretty coo-coo to me. And you look like you could be the guy in charge."

The man hesitated before answering, and flashed her an amused smile even before that. "I have my reasons. But I don't prefer speaking so much." He raised a hand a slashed the air. A moment later, Bobbi came crashing to the floor. "But thank you for volunteering."

Morse gingerly picked herself up and Leo could see the way she was trying to hide her leg injury. He couldn't help her now.

"You sure you don't want to play first?" Timberius asked at the same moment he waved his hand. Fitz's vine retracted. He could speak.

Fear froze his throat.

"I…"

"It's ok Fitz," Bobbi said with determination, her eyes glued on the gifted. "I got this."

"Eager, I see. Guess you'll have to wait your turn," the man said to Leo, then brought his full attention to Bobbi. "Go on; I'll let you have the first blow."

"Yeah?" she said. "How  _sweet."_

On her last word she jumped forward with legs kicked out so that they hit him square in the stomach. He clearly hadn't been expecting the speed and jerked from the surprise hit. Leo hadn't expected it either, not with Bobbi's leg being the way it was, but she kept up easily, throwing swinging punch and kick one after the other.

The man finally collected himself well enough to call a vine down from the ceiling. He hooked a leg through and grabbed onto it, lifting himself up before Bobbi could land another blow.

"I'll admit, I was expecting you to try fumbling with your new powers, but I see why you opted for your physicality," he said, rubbing his chin where a particularly harsh blow hit.

"Great. How about we get back to it?"

"Of course," he said, raising an arm.

Bobbi was ready for the vines this time. They lashed out at her like rattlesnakes snapping and whipping to try and get a grip. She dodged and swiveled and retaliated, but it didn't take overly long before one of them managed a grip on her leg.

Timberius moved his hand in a quick sweep and Bobbi went flying.

The vine had flung her into the wall, leaving her to crash into the tech and plants beneath her.

"Bobbi!" Fitz called, suddenly trying to wriggle out of the impenetrable plants.

She was just picking herself up when a plant coiled around her wrist and dragged her across the ground, before throwing her once again against the opposite wall.

She was slower,  _much_  slower now than when she'd started, but she was able to pick herself up before the next coil got to her.

It didn't matter.

One large vine wove around her legs and Bobbi was too rattled to so much as defend herself. She was pulled forward and dragged on her back towards the man, who lowered the vine tethered to the ceiling he was resting on.

"Don't you see? You have to use your powers!" he told her. "I hope you weren't supposed to be the challenging one…"

"She's not!" Fitz called out without a second thought. "That would be me."

"Fitz…" Bobbi moaned. She clearly didn't want him to do it, but she wasn't the strong one at the moment. That guy was right; the only way to beat him was to attack from afar.

Fitz was the only one here who could do that.

"Perfect…" the man mumbled, the vine pulling Bobbi backwards until she hit the wall once again. But it wasn't to injure her this time. She'd fallen into a small grove, the branches, twigs and vines wrapping over her until she was near completely cocooned, save for her head.

Leo was dropped from his upside-down position.

"Fitz!" Bobbi shouted. "Fitz, don't!"

But he was ready. He could do this. And as much as he cared for Bobbi it wasn't even just her giving him determination.

Jemma was in this place somewhere. She was in here, scared and possibly dealing with new powers. Probably being forced to fight, and she could be alone.

He _had_  to get to her.

Fitz turned on the man, nerve steeled and ready.

"Well, I'll of course give you the same courtesy I gave your companion," Timberius said, gesturing forward. "After you."

"Sure, Timber."

The man scoffed. "Wow. Is 'Timberius' too hard for you to pronounce?"

"Not exactly. I just thought it would be fitting… seeing as you're gonna do a lot of  _falling_!"

Fitz pushed from behind himself with a swoop of his arms. One of the circuit boards jiggled, but it did not fly forward.

Timberius laughed. "Dang kid. I think you may want to try focusing more on your fighting than your pun-"

WHAM!

Fitz'd quickly brought forth the object from behind Timberius, smashing him on the back of the head so he fell forward onto his knees.

While the man was distracted from the hard hit Fitz continued to barrel objects forward, sheer adrenaline surely helping him out with his powers. Soon enough the man covered in the circuit boards and broken computer pieces. Leo was quite sure he'd run out of equipment.

Bobbi was beaming, but still apprehensive as Fitz tried to force the technology down on the man. He was straining, and with nothing else to pile on it was difficult to maintain.

The mound of junk moved. Once and twice, and then gained fervor before nearly exploding open.

"Agh!" Timberius shouted, bursting through the rubble as vines flailed around him. Anger splayed on his face as he drove his hand forward, the climbing plant reaching for Fitz in haste. Leo tried to throw more technology but the man dodged it, and soon the vine was coiled around his whole body. Squeezing.

"Pretty talented for a newbie," rasped Timberius. "A surprising challenge, but I still prefer to win," he emphasized, and the coil squeezed on Leo's body. He groaned loud.

"Timberius!" Bobbi shouted. "Timberius you've already won, you don't have to kill him!"

"Don't worry girl," he said, still staring intently at Fitz as he strangled him. "You may be next but I'll try to keep you around longer. Wouldn't want to be bored… again."

"Damn it, stop-"

Fitz's vision was starting to fail him from lack of air, but what cut off Bobbi's words was bright. It was bright and somewhat hard to miss.

A fireball?

Fitz was dropped immediately as the lit sphere zoomed passed Timberius' face. The man seemed terrified of the thing, completely losing focus on Fitz and looking for the source.

Leo was interested in who or what was there, but he was also very concerned for getting out of the man's line of fire. He crawled away, hobbling over to Bobbi's nest in the corner.

"Who's there?" demanded Timberius. "Show yourself!"

Another flame, and Leo jerked his head down at the sound of impact. It careened with the other plants in the room. Timberius screamed.

"Don't hurt them!" he shrieked, apparently speaking of the flora. "Come out, you coward!"

Fitz made his way to Bobbi and quickly began undoing the vines. With Timberius somewhat preoccupied, the vines had some slack and he was able to pull them apart relatively easily. But the flames were coming closer to them, smoke filling the room.

"We need to get out of here," Bobbi muttered, looking around. "Even if Timberius is gone we'll-"

"-suffocate. Yeah, I know."

The man was terrified, almost traumatized, as his plants lit up the room. "Stop!" he wailed out, seeming unable to control them now. They twitched and shook.

"Sorry I'm late for the party, but I think it's time to heat things up."

Grant Ward lit up fire in his hand and twirled, easily as if he'd had the power his entire life, before ripping it away violently.

Timberius covered his face and his vines moved inward to help, but the flame lit through the plants. He screamed once again as he burned, crisp and quickly as the flora he was made of. Within mere seconds the man was reduced to ash.

Ward cocked his head and studied the pile momentarily before walking over to Bobbi and Fitz.

Leo began rushing the process even more to rid Bobbi of her binds. Soon enough she wriggled her hands free to help, but not before Ward was on top of them.

"Let me help-"

"Go away," growled Bobbi. The room crackled as it burned and all heads turned towards the ceiling.

"That's a great plan but I'd prefer us all to move."

"We're not going anywhere with you!" they shouted at the same time, which also happened to be about the moment Bobbi was freed. She stood.

Ward picked himself up and huffed. "Fine."

Then he turned on his heel and left.

They watched him leave for long moments, slightly puzzled by his quick agreement.

"That's the only exit…" muttered Fitz. "Do we follow him?"

A bar finally had taken enough heat and cracked above, the two reaching for each other to pull them out of the way. Hands still on one another's arms, they looked back at the piling rubble where they'd just been standing.

"Pretty sure we have to," Bobbi said, giving Fitz a tug. He didn't move. "I don't like it either but it's that or die. Let's move!" She pulled once again, and he allowed himself to get going.

Because what he wouldn't allow was being hurt again by that man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timberius is a name taken from the comics. I would not have made it so close to Tobias (Kane's first name) but that was already his name xD
> 
> Sorry no Skye or Lincoln! But I've just written the next chapter... and they do indeed both show up ;)


	6. Elephant in the Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the team find each other... At least until three of them are separated, and run into a new obstacle.

"Bloody hell!" Simmons shrieked, moments after appearing in the room. She was facing away from them and was nervously observing her immediate surroundings. Skye wasn't entirely sure when she'd gotten into the arena, but she was sure as hell happy to see her friend.

Skye was still choking back tears. "Jemma?"

She spun around. "Skye? Coulson! Oh thank god you're alright." Jemma began running towards them.

Another "vwarp" noise later, she was… right in front of them?

"Whoa!" shouted Skye.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Jemma exclaimed and huddled her arms around herself. "I don't know how to control it!"

Skye was puzzled for only a moment before her face contorted to rage. "Kane did this to you?" she demanded, standing up with her anger. Coulson helped haul her though.

Simmons nodded. "I suppose…"

"Is it permanent?" asked Coulson.

"I… I don't know."

Skye didn't know either. Skye didn't know what to  _think._  She'd wanted to help people adjust to their powers, to help them learn they were a burden… but Simmons was never supposed to have powers! She wasn't inhuman. At least… Skye didn't think so.

"How did this happen?" said Skye.

"Surgery? The…  _CAMI_  said surgery. She went on that mine was easier because I'd gone into the monolith. "

"They did something to Mack too," said Coulson. "But his is more… visible."

"Oh, May!" Jemma exclaimed as though just remembering. "She has empathetic powers. Hunter hasn't shown signs yet, and Lincoln's-"

"Lincoln?" Skye uttered in urgency. "You've seen Lin- you've seen them, too?"

Skye was concerned for everyone, really. It sounded like Kane wasn't only using them to play a game, but as though they were test subjects in an experiment. Clearly he happened to _enjoy_ watching the mice suffer as they'd try to figure out the puzzle.

But Lincoln had been her rock. And as much as she wanted to admit she yearned for all of them equally, there was something in her heart that told her she _needed_  to see him.

"If you've seen Mack, I'm afraid the only ones I haven't seen are Fitz or Bobbi."

"Raina?" inquired Coulson.

"Oh. No I've… I've not seen her either." Jemma glanced at Coulson's wrist, causing Skye's eyes to flick that way as well.

"Hey, what happened?" Skye exclaimed. Simmons lifted his sleeve.

"Creel. Apparently his body could change temperature as well as substance."

"Creel?" asked Skye. "When did you see him? Is he-? Oh."

Skye had begun surveying the room when Coulson had brought up the man. And he was there, but the hacker was fairly certain he wouldn't be waking up.

"Hey!" came a shout from the side. "What's going on in there?"

"That's Mack," Coulson explained. "Probably should clue him in."

"But your wrist!"

"It's fine," Coulson insisted. He then yanked his shirt so that a portion tore off, quickly wrapping it around the red area. "See?"

"No but…" Jemma sighed. "Honestly I don't know what else I could do for it here anyway."

"Right. So let's go see Mack and figure out our next move."

The girls nodded and they began walking to the edge of the arena.

"Is everyone ok?" Skye asked Jemma quietly as they walked.

"Well yes, but considering the circumstances… it's just odd." She paused, then looked up to Skye imploringly. "No signs of Fitz?"

Oh god, poor Jemma. This was a horrific place not to know where your best friend was. To not know where someone you cared so deeply about was. What was happening to him.

But as much as Skye wanted to give Simmons good news, she had to shake her head.

"Simmons!" shouted Mack. "They found you?"

"She found us," said Coulson.

Jemma might have said something then, but the scientist's gaping mouth and wide eyes showed she was too distracted.

"Mack… your… your head!" she stuttered as he held the door open for them.

He sighed. "Here I was hoping you wouldn't notice…"

"Hah," scoffed Skye. "How could she _not_  notice?"

Simmons looked uncomfortable as Coulson just leaned into Skye and whispered, "sarcasm."

"Oh." She coughed, regaining composure. "Uh, well, Jemma's one to talk! She has… moving quickly powers?" Skye said uncertainly, realizing she wasn't entirely sure what had happened.

"I think it may be short-range teleportation? I'm not positive… it activates more when I'm near walls…"

"That how you got in here?" asked Mack. She nodded.

"We have to get to the rest of them," said Coulson. "Simmons, know where to start?"

"Yes. Yes I think so," she said. "Follow me."

_Vwarp!_

"Oh," said Coulson.

Because Simmons was gone.

"There's a trail leading around the arena," said Mack, pointing. The air seemed to be off-colored nearly. As though tinted to the hues of Jemma's clothes.

"A… trail? A Simmons trail?" asked Skye.

"Look at the air," Mack said, pointing. "It's disfigured."

Coulson shrugged. "Let's give it a shot."

Mack asking Skye about her injury was all that reminded her that she'd ever had it. The poison had completely gone away and she felt fine.

She didn't understand why they'd do that.

Since it had been such a short-term incentive, she wondered if there were other incentives that were going to pop up along the way. Skye feared for every single one of her friends.

"Skye!"

She halted at the voice.

"Lincoln?" she gasped.

Ok, she might have feared for this one just a  _little_  more.

Her mind went blank for a moment as she ran forward and wrapped him into a hug. They'd been hanging to each other so much the day they had been rescued, even when she'd thought to herself that she was being too clingy. Now that seemed ridiculous. She had _already_  been separated from him!

She wasn't planning on letting it happen again any time soon.

Skye sighed in disappointment as she rubbed over Lincoln's gloved hands with her own and couldn't help but sigh. They were disabled again, birds with clipped wings.

And now it was as though Kane had stuck said wings onto her friends, but they were struggling to fly.

Soon enough the friends that Simmons had mentioned earlier came trotting forward. May had cuffs on, which made sense given what Jemma had said. But Hunter did to. He probably had powers now as well, even if he hadn't shown signs of it yet.

Skye couldn't  _believe_  this was happening.

"Oh good, the gang's all here," commented Hunter, glancing around. "Wait, where's Bobbi?"

"She wasn't with them," explained Simmons. "Neither was Fitz…"

Hunter went from casually to angry in an instant.

"So is that was this is all about?" Hunter exclaimed. He searched the ceiling. "Is that was this is! All of us trying to find the people we care about before they're chopped to bits?"

There was a moment of silence as Hunter seethed. Almost surprisingly, CAMI showed up to answer.

"'Chopped to bits' is too precise to be an accurate presumption, Lance Hunter."

"Are they in danger?" asked Jemma desperately. The two Englanders clearly were the ones with the most to be nervous about. Skye moved closer to Lincoln.

"They are in danger. They are in the game. This game is dangerous. You are in danger, as well."

"Why?" Skye bit out. "I don't understand!"

But then again, she'd never understood. Why had her life been turned upside down for amusement and profit? It had never been a fair trade.

"Experimental programming," said CAMI. "After working for Tivan, Tanaleer at his earth-based museum, Kane, Tobias, worked out how to make more profit. You are all running the beta of the game." She paused, and Skye could have sworn it was for dramatic effect. "You are not all predicted to survive."

"And in order to survive at all we have to kill, right?" Lincoln said presumptively, holding Skye's hand harder, making her realize he'd never let her go in the first place.

"There is zero chance of survival if the players do not end lives."

"Then maybe we should quit now," Skye muttered venomously, damn sick of sacrificing her humanity.

"Whoa, hold up!" said Hunter. "No thanks. I fully intend to find Bobbi and get the hell out of here, no matter what."

"This is insane…" mumbled Jemma quietly. She was nearly crying. "This is insane!"

CAMI beeped. "This was not an inquiry. CAMI will deactivate, now."

"Wait! What about my powers? Do I have powers?" screeched Hunter.

But the light was gone and gave no answer.

"Seriously!" he looked around at everyone. "Am I the only one without bloody powers?"

"Calm down," said Mack. "You've got the cuffs on, you probably do."

"Not that it's necessarily a good thing…" May said grouchily, arms stretched across her chest. Odd sight.

Hunter's mouth was gaping as he examined himself. "Holy… how in the hell did I not notice that sooner?"

Mack then crossed his arms. "A talent in being extremely unobservant?"

Hunter scowled. "Well that's just rude… man Mack. Never known you to be so-"

"Bullheaded!" yelped Skye. The whole team looked at her. She realized she'd been a little too enthusiastic and sort of receded into herself. "I… it's just, I used that one already."

"Ah, of course you did," said Hunter, then paused. And smirked. "What a bunch of bull."

Skye smiled, though was possibly the only one. Everyone else was basically in the middle of a collective groan.

"You're both going to get jacked in the face if you keep this up," Mack threatened.

"Twice," added May. Right. She was probably feeling what Mack was feeling…

"May, how are you?" asked Skye in concern.

The woman let annoyance play on her face. More visible emotion than Skye had ever seen, really. "Been better, Skye. How are you doing? Having fun?"

Skye winced. Who the heck was so annoyed here that was making her act that way?

Well… maybe all of them. Frustrated and scared and annoyed. So May was feeling it times seven.

Skye nodded. "I've been better too. I wish… we were still home."

Apparently she caused some awkward feeling because silence took hold as the team looked over everyone, not needing to be an empath or a mind reader to share the thought.

"What's the game plan, then?" asked Mack.

Coulson shook his head. "I don't know. I don't even know what we're supposed to be doing…"

"Finding Bobbi!" Hunter insisted around the same time Jemma exclaimed "finding Fitz of course!"

Phil nodded. "Ok, so we have a goal in mind. Good start."

"And the rest of them?" asked May. "Ward's here, somewhere. Naja, Raina… all the inhumans."

"They could be players like us," mused Lincoln. "Or… obstacles."

"Or perhaps Kane is saving them said we're apart of the beta test, remember?" said Simmons. "We're clearly expendable."

What followed those words was all too perfect of timing, and Skye wouldn't be surprised if Kane was behind some set of controls to make it so well-done. Because the moment Jemma finished the word 'expendable," the floor beneath their feat decided to take a little field trip. It disappeared.

Skye yelped as she fell, still holding onto Lincoln when they descended. It wasn't too far, she surmised, perhaps ten or fifteen feet. But her rump still hurt when it hit the ground.

She looked up immediately and watched the ceiling close them in.

"Is everyone ok?" she asked, finally getting a look around. In doing so she realized that 'everyone' wasn't much of any of them. Only Lincoln and Hunter had plummeted with her.

"Fine, fine…" mumbled Hunter. "Could do with some nice powers to break my fall though."

She realized he was joking, but had no time for smiles as she searched the face of the man next to her. "You ok?"

"Been through worse," he assured her. They helped each other off the ground of the oddly decorated room.

It had bright pink walls with white polka dots accompanied by a red and pink bed. There was even a pink dresser in the shape of a heart.

To top it off, what Skye could only explain as the real-life version of Strawberry Shortcake came hurdling towards them.

"Visitors!" the pink-haired girl screamed, clapping her hands. Her frilled dress swayed as she advanced. "It is so nice to meet you! I've never had visitors. Of course, I've only had this room for, hmm… a day! But then I never had visitors before at my last place either. Though that had been the point of course!"

Skye recognized this girl, she thought. After sharing a look with Lincoln, it was confirmed she wasn't just seeing things. His face easily told that he knew her as well. After staring at Lincoln for a little too long –his eyes were enticing, ok?- Skye turned back to the girl.

"Tessa?" Skye inquired, cutting off the girl's rambling. Skye wasn't even sure what the girl was going on about… something to do with cookies?

Her mouth gaped. "Oh, no! Silly… that's my twin!"

"Your twin?" asked Hunter. "Wait, I don't even know who _you_ are."

"Ah, I'm sorry I'm so sorry! I am Priya," she sang happily, and then curtsied. No joke. A low, holding-out-her-skirt, curtsy. She giggled. "Kane prefers me to be called Aphrodite, but he just loves those nicknames by the sound of it! Anyhow, would you all like some tea? And cookies! You never answered me about the cookies."

Priya beamed.

The rest of them blinked.

"Is this serious?" Hunter screeched. "What the hell is happening!"

"Serious? Nah, I think you are  _too_  serious!" she laughed. "Sit. Sit! I'll get you some tea."

"I don't want any bloody tea!" exclaimed Hunter. "In hindsight, I can't believe I just said that…"

"C'mon Hunter," Skye scolded quietly. "We can get some information out of her."

"Yeah," agreed Lincoln. "She doesn't seem threatening."

Skye gave him a pitying look, but felt something akin to anger in her stomach at the naivety of such a phrase. Though, the longer she looked him over, she couldn't help but feel more like stroking his skin.

Wait what.

Skye shook her head of her own thoughts. "Lincoln, everything here is a threat. Don't forget that."

They'd all sat down at the small pink coffee table. (Skye almost missed it!) Pink princess soon brought them a tray full of tea and cookies. As she loaded them onto fine china to disperse for each of the SHIELD agents Skye couldn't help but wonder if she'd been drugged once again. Pink room and tea party? Definitely weird.

"Ah yes, this is nice," said Priya, settling into a seat. "So what are your names?" she asked daintily, sipping her tea.

"I'm Skye… and this is Lincoln and Hunter." They waved, awkwardly. The way Lincoln did it was adorable though. He almost twirled his fingers in succession. So cute!

"How nice! You seem lovely. I do hope we won't have to fight or something."

"You were told to fight us?" asked Lincoln.

"Hmm, not exactly. I was told someone may try to hurt me!"

"We won't," Skye promised, despite a warning look from Hunter. He really was prepared to do anything to get out of there.

"That's perfect!" she said. "I won't hurt you either."

Skye didn't understand. There was no door to this place… what were they doing in there?

"So, Tessa is your sister. She um…  _worked_ at the place Lincoln and I were held…"

"I don't think she worked there willingly…" Priya mused. "The collector had her because he couldn't find me."

"Why would he want you?" asked Hunter. Skye was happy he'd had enough tact so not to add 'to plan his parties?' or something.

"For my power," she said simply, taking another sip from her cup. "When my sister went through Terrigenesis, her gift was… less than to be desired."

"Which was…?" asked Hunter.

"To mimic any accent she's shown," explained Priya. "It didn't excite the collector and he took her in as a slave instead of an artifact."

"That's horrible," Skye breathed.

"Really is... And he only kept her because he thought she could help get to me," she said, so casually. As though conditioned to look on the bright side or to have just stopped caring at all. "But I of course did not know this, shipped off as I'd been. No contact with living beings. Ever."

That… did not sound good. Because, as of the moment, they were living.

Lincoln, Hunter and Skye shared glances. Skye caught Lincoln's eyes in her gaze and felt her heart beat faster.

"Why's that?" said Hunter, his tone raising an octave. "Do tell, I'm quite curious."

"Well, my power is dangerous for me of course. If I were ever to be alone in a room with someone they would be persuaded to take me."

The story was turning dark, this girl's chipper tone adding to what was quickly becoming horrific.

"They'd want to kidnap you?" asked Lincoln. "Why?"

"Oh no. Not captured. Take… in the like… biblical sense? I think that's what it's called…"

Skye's eyes grew wide.

"It was never their fault!" Priya insisted on their behalf. "They were under my powers… my spell, as my father put it. That's why he took me away, so no one would touch me."

"So what is your power?" Skye asked, feeling near flushed. She wasn't' entirely sure why.

She also didn't get the answer from Priya, because Hunter began shouting in quite an urgent tone.

"Hands on the table. Hands on the bloody table!" Hunter suddenly ordered.

"What? Why?" asked Skye.

"Because I'm pretty certain I know what her powers are," Hunter said, eying at Lincoln and Skye's laps.

Skye gasped at the sight. She'd barely so much as felt Lincoln's hand… and it was kneading her inner thigh pretty insistently. She'd known in the back of her mind, she supposed, but it had seemed too natural to take note of.

She _certainly_  didn't notice her hands on the buttons to his pants…

Both inhumans shot their hands up and put them on the table instantly. Skye felt embarrassed… but syrupy feelings were beginning to intrude as she took in Lincoln's enticing form.

She wanted to do it again.

"Well," said Hunter nervously. "I suppose we know why Kane likes to call you Aphrodite."


	7. Separate the Sheep from the Goats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bobbi and Fitz talk to Ward about a truce.

Bobbi could not stop gagging long seconds after they'd left the room. She could not, for literally the life of her, catch her breath.

"Just breathe, Bobbi," Fitz cooed into her ear.

 _I can't and that's basically the problem,_  she wanted to say, but had no voice.

Fitz was supporting her. Normally she dwarfed him, but hunched over to cough he easily laid a hand on her back.

Eventually her hacking dimmed to heaving and she was able to stand. Tears brimmed in her eyes, though.

"So, you guys want a team up after all?" came the casual voice. The all-too familiar nonchalance that had accompanied her pain in the past.

"No," she snapped. "We  _told you_  to get away from us."

Ward cocked a brow. "But then you followed me," he pointed out.

"From a burning room!" Fitz screeched, glancing behind himself. "Which… is still in flames. Maybe we should move?"

"Wouldn't recommend going far," said Ward, crossing his arms. "That was the second obstacle I've faced today. Whole place is booby-trapped."

"If we wanted an opinion from you we'd have asked for it, and…" she took a deep breath, quickly running out of air from the sentence. "…we won't."

The hydra man scrutinized her. "Ok… you alright there?"

"She just inhaled loads of smoke, thanks to you," Fitz explained harshly.

"Thanks to…?" started Ward. "You  _should_ be thanking me. I saved both your asses in there."

"But Bobbi's lung isn't healed yet. The smoke could have killed her!"

Ward looked interested, curious. He gazed over at Bobbi and she knew he'd put the pieces together. "Ah. My bullet did the damage, I take it," he said, stepping forward to her.

"And I have no intention of letting you do it again anytime soon," she snarled. "So back off."

Ward had the gall to chuckle. "You think you could stop me?" he asked darkly, gesturing to the hand he'd been chucking  _fireballs_  with earlier.

Bobbi wasn't one to back down from taunts, from fights. From anything. But this man haunted her nightmares. He'd disabled her and he'd tried to take  _Hunter_ from her. There was no way in hell she was going to let him see that she was scared, but her moment's hesitation of defending herself stemmed from that. It allowed him to continue talking, and worse, analyze her.

"Did they even give you a power?" he asked. "I'm guessing yes, based on what that AI thing told me. But then why would  _you_ , this Wonder Woman SHIELD agent, not be able to defeat that mess of a guy… I'm thinking you might have gotten the short straw in the power exchange." She watched him light his hand as his face turned casual to dark. "So maybe don't test me-"

"And you don't  _touch_  her!" Fitz screamed, throwing a fierce shove at Ward's chest. The fireball could have so easily burned him. "Don't even try to turn on those powers you don't know how to control!"

Bobbi didn't react quick enough to do anything, disarmed by his words. But it turned out she didn't have to. Ward just dropped his hands and stared at the engineer. He was heaving, standing protectively in front of her.

Fitz raised a finger. "You're not going to hurt anyone I care about ever again," he said. He was about to spew more angry words by the look of it, but instead just sighed. "It's not because I think I can take you," admitted Fitz, eyes wide and nervous. "Because I don't know if I can. But you… you at least pretended to care about us, about me, even after Hydra. I don't know if that's a lie or not, but if you care just know: if you threaten Bobbi you threaten me."

When did this happen? When did Bobbi become so weak she couldn't even use her voice and cunning as a weapon? Fitz was fighting her battles for her. In no way was she belittling Fitz, but that shouldn't fall onto him. In no way was he more qualified.

Except for that personal edge he had in the situation. Ward definitely hated Bobbi, but there he'd never shown signs of disliking Fitz.

"You're right, Fitz," said Ward. "I honestly think you may be the only agent from our BUS to make it here with your integrity intact. But, how about we call a truce? We put personal feelings aside to try and get out of this place."

"And afterwards?" Bobbi asked, perhaps foolishly. No way would Ward say he'd come willingly back into SHIELD's arms to be a prisoner. But then again, she'd like some assurances he wouldn't turn around and shoot her in the back.

"Cross that bridge when we come to it," he said. "If you remember,  _I_ called out to SHIELD to help Skye. The fact that you locked me up just shows your bad hospitality."

Bobbi smiled in strain. "Or showcased your stupidity," she said innocently.

"Stop it," said Fitz. "Just stop talking and berating each other. It's not helpful."

_And putting needles through my fingers was?_

Bobbi couldn't help the thought. Every time she looked at him, every time she thought of him she could feel it. The thought of losing Hunter rushed into her mind anew.

But, no. No, Fitz was right.

If Ward had some kind of personal connection, some kind of moral obligation to be of aid, riling him up would only lead to unsavory consequences.

Fitz sighed. "If you want, we can establish that you both hate each other and that any co-operation is out of necessity."

Bobbi frowned. "We're not five years old, Fitz."

He shrugged, clearly a little embarrassed. "That's what Jemma and I did when we weren't getting much done on our first partner project, back at the academy…" he cleared his throat. "Ok whatever. Let's just do this."

"Do what?" asked Bobbi. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

Right on time, a small, silver canister emerged from the ceiling. Glinting at them, Bobbi was sure it was meant to be a sort of spray bottle.

"Maybe deal with that?" guessed Fitz.

"Let's try not to," said Ward. "Move!"

He shoved them both. Though Bobbi despised his touch, she had to admit it was not out of place for what they'd agreed to.

Not that it mattered. The canister began to emit gasses quickly after they'd taken their first steps. It moved through the air quickly, Bobbi smelling the sickly sweet substance even as she attempted to hold her breath.

Then colors danced before her eyes, and she honestly didn't think it was from her powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made this a short chapter or the delay would have been longer, and it just would have been more Bobbi/Fitz/Ward stuff anyhow. It seems to me you guys like the other people, so I'll try to have a chapter up quicker than usual and it's those people hanging out with Priya next!


	8. The Birds and the Bees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye, Lincoln and Hunter talk with Priya a bit more.

Lincoln had stood up and taken himself as far away from Skye as possible. She hugged herself in the corner and he was doing nearly the same. He was so much more… uncomfortable now than he had been when inadvertently touching Skye. It was as though he hadn't noticed it before, but in the absence of her…. Well, he noticed it a lot.

"I'm sorry about that! Hopefully you two are a couple," said Priya. "If you're only showing signs of wanting one another that means you're probably attracted to each other anyway."

"This is why you were taken away?" Lincoln breathed harshly. "Because people would come after you?"

Priya nodded. "If I am the only person around to take."

This girl needed to stop talking about this so offhandedly. It was as though it were engrained into her brain, as though it were normal and perfectly fine to… to assault someone!

"Priya," Skye asked delicately, though her voice shook. "H-how long were you gone?"

She blinked innocently at Skye, smiling as though in a daze. "Since I was eleven. That is when I went through the mists, and it didn't take long to figure out my power was no blessing."

"You haven't seen your family since you were eleven?" Hunter asked, his voice cracking with more emotion than he usually cared to showcase.

"It was ok," she said. "I had animals! We had tea parties and played game… it was fun. But now I have you guys!"

She was so hopeful at the prospect of being with other humans, for a moment Lincoln truly did want to stay in this room with her forever. But he knew they couldn't.

"I'm sorry Priya," Lincoln told her. "We have to go. We have more friends to help…. We can't stay here."

She frowned. Momentarily. Then a half-hearted smile came back. "That's alright, I suppose. Mr. Kane just made it seem more permanent."

"Of course he did," scoffed Skye to herself. She then took in the girl. "Never listen to him. He enjoys making people feel bad."

"He let me pick out my room!" she insisted.

"He's using you," said Hunter, to which Priya looked confused. "People are nice when they're trying to get people to do things for them."

"Oh," she said sadly. "Well, I'm not trying to do that to you! I really just wanted cookies… and…"

"It's ok," Skye said in a rush, clearly feeling the effects still. "We know you didn't mean to. But, do you know how long it lasts?"

Priya beamed at the opportunity to fill Skye in on something she knew. "I do! For… forever!"

"What?" all three agents exclaimed.

"I mean it goes away a little bit once you give into it… but I guess you always feel it?" She giggled. "I'm not sure. That's just what I've been told!"

"Well… is there an antidote?" asked Lincoln desperately. He was already clammy and dizzy with want. He could not imagine feeling like this for the rest of his  _life._

She put a hand to her lips. "Mmm, I didn't think so… But Kane told me if I die it might reverse the effects!" she exclaimed, quickly becoming still. Scared, for the first time. "Oh. Maybe… maybe that's why he thought people would want to hurt me…"

"We won't," Skye assured. Ok, was it just Lincoln or was she creeping closer to him?

He hoped she was. That would be nice.

"Speak for yourself," hissed Hunter quietly so Priya was out of earshot. "I think one girl's life is worth the three of us not assaulting everyone we set our eyes on!"

"Three of us?" Skye asked. "Do you… do you feel any urges?"

Hunter contemplated. "Actually… no."

"No?" asked Priya, her mouth wide in shock. She moved forward and without warning latched a hand onto Hunter's chin, inspecting his eyes. "You don't want to make out with anyone in here?"

"Erm, no?"

A smile that could rival the sun in brightness burst onto her face. "That's amazing! How are you doing that?" she asked, circling him as though there would be some sort of sign hanging from his back.

"I don't know! It's not like I've got any pow- oh."

"Oh?" mirrored Priya curiously.

"Maybe his powers are to not be affected by other powers," guessed Lincoln when Hunter didn't finish. He was doubled over now, his body felt tickly and warm and just  _wrong._

"How bloody lame…" Hunter muttered.

"Are you kidding?" asked Skye. "That could be so helpful!"

"Listen, if you haven't noticed, we don't need another defensive player. You two are our only offence and you're powers are deactivated! I suppose Mack could be helpful… but who the hell knows what use his-"

Hunter was cut off, quite literally, as Priya planted her face on his mouth.

Lincoln looked over at Skye to gauge her reaction. It wasn't shock as he assumed to find. In fact, there wasn't much of a reaction at all. She was just standing there; eyes dilated, mouth wide and panting.

He wanted to do something about that.

He ran forward and kissed her hungrily. She returned it with equal eagerness and ran her hands all over his body, quickly going for his shirt.

"No no no.  _Hell_  to the no!"

Lincoln was ripped away from Skye, though he was putting up such a fight that Hunter had to throw him to the ground to harness enough force to get him off of her. Skye whimpered at the loss of contact.

"No kissing! This is a no snogging zone!" Hunter insisted. He turned to Priya. "And you. What the hell was _that_?"

"I was curious! Thought maybe the contact would start something…" she said, smiling from beneath her eyelashes. "Did it?"

"No! I do not want to kiss you or anything in the like." He paused, his face paling. "You… you're eighteen right? I didn't just kiss a minor…"

"I'm pretty sure I'm twenty-two," she chirped.

"Pretty sure? How is that something you don't just know?"

"Nah, I understand," Skye agreed as she shrugged in Hunter's grip. He'd kept hold of her arm for good measure. "I thought I was twenty-five until a couple months ago…"

"Ok fair point, I suppose… still think it's a bit messed up."

"Hah. That's what I said when I found out."

She was almost in a daze, drugged up. But he supposed that was normal for someone on aphrodisiacs. He certainly didn't feel right when they were dosing him for those…

Those dreams.

"Holy crap," Lincoln breathed suddenly, clutching his head.

"What is it?" Skye asked and rushed forward, but stopped herself before she got too close.

"This is a hallucination."

"Oh no, Lincoln… No, it's not."

Her face played worry, concern, pity, nervousness…

Which would make sense in their current predicament, wouldn't it? She would be scared to think her friend was going off his rocker in this situation.

But was it real, or not?

Lincoln strode up to Priya and Skye grabbed his hand, stopping him in case he was going to hurt the girl. The sparks her touch sent through him were instantaneous.

Hunter broke through them once again. "No. No touching! Bad inhumans; nobody touch!"

"Why wouldn't he use you before?" Lincoln heaved, ignoring the Brit completely. "Why wouldn't he use you when they were trying to get Skye and I to sleep together in the first place?"

Priya shrugged, and played with the drawstrings on her dress coyly. "I don't know… I was in hiding. I don't know why he found me when he did."

"So you've just met Kane not too long ago?"

She nodded happily. "Yes! He contacted me through a screen and used robots to pick me up. Said he could take me to a place where I could be with other people. People like me."

Skye rubbed her face in her hands. "This is horrible. If anyone else gets affected and decides they don't want to feel this way forever, they could kill her."

Priya giggled. "I told you, you're just feeling really bad now because you haven't given in to it yet. Just keep a boy around to use a few times a day-"

Lincoln shook his head. "Please stop talking."

"Well this is normal, isn't it?" Priya asked. "My father always said that these things just weren't meant for children. But we're adults. Feel free to sleep with each other if you want!"

Every time the poor misguided girl suggested these things it only made Lincoln want to tug Skye closer. Normally the thought of being out in the open would be disgusting. He knew that, knew it in the back of his mind… but it just wasn't registering.

"Oh good lord," Hunter said, grabbing the girl by the shoulder so she faced him fully. "Birds and the bees speed round: one, it is certainly  _not_ normal to do that in front of other people. Number two, yeah adults may talk about sex… but not seriously. Not  _personally._ Three, three…. hmm, well maybe I covered it."

Skye perked up. "Um, how about it's good to actually want to be with a person as opposed to a love spell?"

"Ah yeah, good one," Hunter agreed. "That's number three."

Priya was giving him the look of someone who'd just been told pigs could fly. "What does any of that have to do with the birds and the bees?" she asked.

Hunter blinked. "Jesus! Did you not have internet?"

Priya shook her head with a happy grin. "Nope. Lots of books my father gave me though. Fabric for sewing…"

Hunter threw up his hands in exasperation. "She's bloody Snow White."

"Oh yes! That is one of the books I had."

Lincoln scoffed. "You hallucinations have to admit this is just a little too perfect for real life."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "You. Have. Electric.  _Powers._  How is this any more wonky?"

He shrugged. "It's too good of a story."

"That's because Kane's creating it," Skye said. "Weaving this for entertainment. I'm sure of it."

"Well-" Lincoln started, but was cut off by a  _'vwarp!'_

Jemma turned around from facing the wall. "Finally!" she exclaimed. "Couldn't get it to bloody work… Going down is clearly more difficult."

"Simmons!" Hunter exclaimed. "Thank god, you can get us out of here."

She hopped off of the pink bed she'd been standing on, happening to have landed there when materializing into the room. "Are you all alright?" She eyed Priya. "What's… going on?"

Skye waved her off. "Don't worry about her, she won't hurt us. Her name is Priya."

The girl gave a delicate wave.

"Well… how nice to meet you," Jemma said uncertainly. This is an interesting place…" she mumbled, glancing about. "Fitz isn't here, is he?"

Lincoln had sort of stepped out of the conversation to watch it unfold. He didn't feel like contributing until he was sure it was real.

"No," Skye said, nervously rubbing her own legs up and down. Lincoln realized he was doing the same, anxiety and other urges driving him. "Can you get us out of here?"

"Yeah, I think…" she mumbled in distraction. "Hunter, want to go first?"

Skye frowned. "You can't do it all at the same time?"

"Oh well, perhaps… But Hunter-"

"Is this because you want to kiss me?" he asked flatly.

Her eyes grew large. She scoffed, waved her hand dismissively. "What?" she squeaked. "No… no."

Hunter sighed. "So that's a big old yes."

"Oh damn," Skye muttered. "If we take Priya, she'll influence everyone!"

"Whoa! Red flag," exclaimed Hunter. "Who said we were bringing her?"

"You can't really expect us to leave her in a doorless room," Skye scoffed. "She could be killed!"

" _You_  could be killed!" Hunter exclaimed. "How do you know your symptoms won't get worse? What if you… attack each other or whoever's trying to stop you from getting to one another?"

Skye inhaled, clearly at a loss. Lincoln didn't know what to say to her. CAMI's voice echoed through his mind about how they all wouldn't make it out.

Then CAMI's voice was literally echoing in the room.

"Contestants are taking too long at this stage. Game will be accelerated."

She'd blinked on and off in an instant, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

"That doesn't sound good…" mumbled Lincoln. But honestly, what did lately?

The room began to shake. Loud and violently.

"Um… Skye?" Hunter asked hopefully.

She held up her hands in defense. "Not me. Gloves are definitely still on."

The walls began cracking. The pink wallpaper tore instantly, and Priya's belonings began falling to the ground.

"What… my bedroom!" Priya shrieked. "I just decorated it…"

"Bigger problems!" Hunter said. He grabbed her hand, and then Lincoln's, to haul them nearer Simmons and Skye. "Get us out of here!"

"I don't know if…" Jemma started, eyes glazing over as she looked at Hunter. Well, Lincoln thought. He honestly didn't keep that girl in his sights too long.

Skye was very close now.

He reached out to touch her and Hunter was there. Shouting, maybe. He was fairly certain the outburst was directed at Simmons. A great urgency to his tone.

Lincoln was definitely distracted by Skye's invigorating brown eyes and the way her hair sort of fluffed with static when she hadn't brushed it in a while, the way it vibrated in the shaking room, but Hunter's tone  _might_  have been because the room was falling apart around them.

"Simmons, NOW!" Hunter shouted.

Jemma closed her eyes and clamped her arms around all of them. He felt a tight squeeze, and heard the 'vwarp' sound once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Comment are appreciated :)


	9. A Fly in the Ointment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bobbi, Ward and Fitz are drugged and find Bobbi's power particularly interesting.

Whoa… that gave me a headrush."

"You ok other than that?" Bobbi asked. Fitz nodded, and they both turned to the odd man out.

"Ward," Bobbi deadpanned. "You dead?"

He made a long blink, then answered almost as though offended.

"No."

"Damn," said Bobbi, truthfully. Though… he could still be of help she supposed. She picked herself up (whatever had been in that canister really had given her the spins,) only to feel dizzy all over again. She wavered.

"If this is a game," started Ward, pressing fingers to his head, "someone is cheating."

"Really," said Fitz. "I can barely move the room is spinning so fast!"

Bobbi supported herself against the wall. "You need help?"

Fitz was still on the ground, on his backside, staring around himself as though trying to determine the best course of action on how to get back to a standing position. "Uh…" He glanced at his surroundings one last time. "Yeah. Yeah I do."

"Okay," Bobbi said with some strain, pushing herself off the wall. She put a hand in front of his face.

He stared at her.

"Take my hand," she said, smiling at his confusion.

"Oh. Oh yes!" Fitz grabbed her hand and she pulled.

Strangely, Fitz didn't come up. She went  _down._  She toppled onto Fitz and sprawled over his lap, somehow unable to stop smiling.

Ward erupted into laugher. Loudly. Very loudly. In fact, he was so taken by the tumble that he fell backwards himself, unable to stop his guffaws.

"What the hell was that?" he managed through still-strong laughter.

Was it contagious or something? Because Bobbi found herself giggling as she answered. "I don't know!" she exclaimed. "Clearly Fitz has super strength."

"Oh my goodness," started Fitz as a blank expression crossed his face. "I have  _two_  powers?"

"Why does he get two powers?" asked Ward. If Bobbi didn't know any better, she'd say his tone was whiny.

"Wait. Wait." Bobbi had to think. "Wait."

"We're waiting!" exclaimed Fitz.

"I was kidding. I didn't really think you had super strength." She gasped. "But what if… what if you  _do_  have super strength?"

It occurred to Bobbi at this moment that she was still leaning over Fitz, although she'd turned to her back and was staring up at him. Her legs were over his knees. She found herself perfectly ok with that. They were friends, so no biggie.

"I want to test it," Fitz muttered, shimmying out from beneath Bobbi. Well, there went her pillow.

He walked straight up to Ward. "I'm going to hit you."

"What? Why?"

"Because I think I deserve to get a punch in!"

"But what if you  _do_  have super strength?"

Fitz thought on this, bringing a hand to his chin to even stroke it. "Then… it will actually hurt."

"But-"

WHAM.

_"_ _Ow!"_

Unfortunately, that noise did not come from Mr. Hydra.

"I don't have super strength! Do  _not_  have super strength!" Fitz cried out as he cradled his hand. "What's your bloody cheek made of, steel?"

"It is?" asked Ward hopefully.

Bobbi decided it was time to hoist herself up. "Nah," she said dismissively. "Fitz, are you ok?"

"Yeah, think so…"

She took his hand in her own to inspect it. Fitz's fingers began to dim, turn grey and listless.

"What the…" started Ward. His mouth hung open as he observed.

"Oh no! I'm sorry," said Bobbi. She tried to put the colors back. She slapped his hand a few times.

"Ouch, oi!"

"I don't know how to put them back!"

Ward snorted. "That's your power? _Wow."_

Bobbi wanted to remark something, anything, snappy and annoyed as she was. But she couldn't think of anything good.

That didn't stop her from opening her mouth though.

"Better than your face!" she spat.

Ward made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded like a snort of held back laughter. He held his hand to his mouth to contain a chuckle, but Fitz didn't seem to have the self-control and belted out laughing.

"Bobbi, that was horrible!" he cried. "Didn't even make sense."

She put her hands on her hips, making her annoyance shown. Before she could defend herself she noticed her shirt being drained of color. Her hands were becoming drenched in hues.

"Whoa," she said, bringing her palms before her face.

It was so  _pretty._

"Wow," Ward muttered, dumbfounded. "That is better than my face."

It looked… intense, to say the least. The colors were pulsing in rhythms and flowing like a river running.

Bobbi touched one palm to the other and it shot up like a fountain.

"Oh my god," she whispered, eyes wide and in awe. It took her a while to look over at the boys, but they were just as starry eyed.

"Get more…" muttered Ward.

"More what?" Bobbi asked in confusion.

"Colors of course!" said Fitz, looking around the room eagerly. "Erm… there's not many colors in here!"

Ward quickly dispelled his jacket and threw it at her, though she reacted far too slowly to catch it. She picked up the clothing from her feet.

The brown color flowed into her, tickling her fingers as it went and making her shudder. She even closed her eyes.

"Do my jacket and you need a room?" asked Ward wryly.

"No!" Bobbi spat, throwing the drained thing back at him with only grey hues remaining. She let the colors meld and flow in her hands. Back and forth, back forth. She bunched the substance –if you could call it that, it felt more like a warm light than anything else- into a ball, having to move her hands quickly to keep her color sphere from falling apart.

"Bobbi, show us!" Fitz whined suddenly. "You're hogging it."

"It's  _my_  power and he's an asshole," grumbled Bobbi. She gasped. "Wait, actually I don't care. I just thought of something cool."

The two men before her looked like toddlers in their excitement and she could have sworn Fitz was about to clap his hands together in eagerness.

She shot her hands up and the colors sprung away from her and into the air, just as she'd hoped. She'd tried something along those lines earlier, but somehow, she just knew what to do now.

They sparkled like Technicolor stars in the sky and she just had to sit down and stare. Bobbi even found herself waving her hand in the air as though to touch them.

The room became dark and all she could see were the colors, swirling and morphing without so much as doing anything on her part. They were dancing all on their own. That wasn't the only thing dancing: Fitz and Ward were practically spiraling along with the lights.

She laughed. She couldn't help it. The sight before her was so ridiculous that she nearly fell over chuckling.

A hand shot out in front of her face, and it appeared as though Fitz was talking in slow motion. She wasn't entirely sure what he said, but she got up and began to twirl with the two men. She held onto Fitz's hands and they danced, airy and fun. Bobbi wasn't sure how long it lasted. It felt like hours.

She also wasn't entirely sure when Ward left.

"Fitz!" she exclaimed. "He's gone."

Everything was still sparkling in such a lovely way, she had a hard time focusing on his face. It tiled with puzzlement. "Who?"

"Uh… Ward! Ward's gone!"

Fitz waved her off. "Eh, he can handle himself."

"No. No," she said. "I don't care if he can handle himself or not. I'm scared about what he could do if he finds our friends!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Well… maybe we should find him," said Fitz.

"I think we should find him," said Bobbi.

They nodded and began to walk. Bobbi didn't like this place. She didn't know these corridors and without her colors it was so dark. She didn't even have the lights in her hands anymore; she'd thrown them into the air.

That gave her an idea.

She went back, just a bit, just back to where all the colors were still dancing in the air. She jumped to catch them. They returned to her like magnets, and soon her hands were glowing again.

Right, Now to find Ward. And Fitz.

Fitz?

She gasped, realizing her friend was no longer with her.

"Fitz?" she called out. She could not find him. "Fitz!"

It was then she heard a hiss, evil noises. Scary noises. They were crowding her mind.

"Ah!" she called out as she clutched her head. It was too loud.

"There you are," a menacing voice sneered and grabbed both of Bobbi's wrists. They were slammed onto a table in front of her and she was shoved down into the seat.

Indomitable manacles were around her arms. She could not move. She could not move!"

"Now," said Ward as he looked over a needle he held before himself. "Why don't we pick up where we left off. I think we could go for eyes instead of fingers this time, huh?"

Bobbi snarled. "Of course. All that talk about wanting to get out of here and needing help… you just want to kill me."

Ward shook his head. "Not kill… just closure."

"You're delusional."

"Right… and you're  _blind."_

He stuck it straight through her, right into her left eye.

It  _hurt._

She couldn't stop screaming.

"Whoa whoa, hey!" came a soothing voice. But nothing could soothe her, she was being tortured. Killed. As long as he didn't get Hunter… but he could! Hunter was there.

She needed to get out.

Bobbi began pulling at thecuffs, but she couldn't move. She was trapped.

"Morse! Bobbi Morse, wake up-"

She opened her eyes.

 _Two_  eyes.

The pain wasn't bad. In fact, the pain almost wasn't there at all. Almost like echoes of such. She reached up to touch her eye and felt… nothing.

Had it been a dream?

It had felt so real.

Ward stood before her, having been both the soothing voice and the menacing nightmare.

"It's showing you what you dread," he told her. "It's not real."

Bobbi felt the tear tracks on her face as she looked around helplessly. She was not in a chair but on the ground, and there was no such table or chains before her.

"Oh," she remarked suddenly.

"What did you see?" asked Ward.

Her eyes darkened. He had no right to that answer. "What did _you_  see?" she parroted angrily.

"My brother in the well. Skye calling me a Nazi." He paused. "My demons aren't exactly a secret."

"Well I saw you sticking needles into me again," she hissed harshly. "My demons aren't exactly a secret to you, huh?"

He shrugged. "Guess not."

Then he turned and walked away.

 _That's_ all he had to say on the subject? God, how twisted was he.

"You don't feel an ounce of remorse, do you?" she snarled.

Ward scowled and turned on her, much too far in her personal space. "I feel more remorse than you would ever believe," he said. "Just none that happens to be directed at you."

Bobbi could have growled. No remorse. Her crime had been her giving up a safehouse that might have not had anyone in it... as opposed to a definite of getting a dozen agents killed and blowing her cover.

"You… are… horrible!" she shouted, giving him a fierce shove in the back.

She wasn't expecting what came with it.

The push would have probably just made him stumble. But he plowed forward, propelled by the colors that came out of her hands. They'd become almost white. Like an energy beam.

He toppled to the ground in a heap, heaving from the hard hit.

Bobbi was more shocked than anything, but anger was a close second. She merely glanced at her hands for a moment before towering over him, raging. "Maybe we're more equal in powers after all," she sneered.

He grinned, lighting up a hand. "You want a fight? Fine. At least now it will be fair."

As Bobbi steeled herself and Ward began to rise in preparation to face her, they heard a scream.

"JEMMA! No, stop please!"

"Fitz," Bobbi whispered. Before Ward could say anything or try anything, she bolted away towards the voice. He was more important that some score to settle.

Fitz was just standing there, his arms being held behind his back as though restrained, but nothing was there. He was wailing in upset and distraught. Bobbi knew it was a hallucination, but she had to help him before it got worse.

Though worse might have already been there, as she saw a figure creep forward from the shadows.

Bobbi didn't think that was a hallucination at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait guys! It's a busy time of year for me. I will try to speed up.


	10. Albatross Around One's Neck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the team are put in the pit to fight a new guy named Joey.

_Vwarp!_

The group of agents –plus one rather screwed up inhuman- appeared on the other side of the wall. Or however Jemma's power worked, as they were more in the center of a room.

"I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this," the biochemist muttered. "I think we've gone farther than usual."

"That's because you are bloody fantastic!" Hunter screeched. "I could kiss you! But I won't… because I think you'd try to use your tongue."

Jemma went from eyes wide and dilated at Hunter's first sentence to sheepish and shy, placing her hands behind her back. Yes, Priya's power definitely was still in full swing as Skye could surely attest to, but they still needed to study what was going on around them.

"We're back in the arena," Skye said dejectedly after a look around. Tears crowded her eyes suddenly and she banished them, hating how weakness so easily sprung forward since her captivity. Her rock was just a few feet away from her, but she knew if she went into the comfort of Lincoln's arms she'd only end up thinking of him as no more than a slab of meat under her current lustful compulsion.

"Oh!" Jemma yelped suddenly. Her eyes traveled down to see the cuffs on her arms light up briefly. "Whoa. Did my powers just…?"

"Turn off?" presumed Skye. "I think they might have."

"They don't want us getting out of here," said Lincoln.

Skye thought she spotted movement on the other side of the arena, tilting her head to see better. Before she could make anything out a voice carried through the large room.

"Welcome, to our latest match folks! Today, we have the SHIELD agents versus newcomer, Melting Man!"

Skye's fists curled and uncurled at the horrible voice. Kane had clearly taken over for the announcer that had been present when Skye had been forced to fight Creel, and he was all too delighted to play his part.

A very unsure man stepped forward. He looked terrified, as though each step he took was unwilling and forced. From body language alone there was no doubt he'd been threatened into being here. Skye almost wished she were facing another one of the psychos that found thrill in this. Perhaps they were more dangerous, but anything was better than fighting people who were just as hurt as she was.

"Why are all of us fighting one of him?" asked Lincoln.

Hunter shrugged. "Maybe he's got an amazing power or something. We're not entirely the picture of threatening at the moment."

He was right. What did they have? Lincoln, Skye and Jemma's powers were turned off. Hunter wouldn't be affected, probably, but that wasn't enough to go on the offensive. Then there was Priya of course, but…

Actually, maybe she was their best bet. Her power _was_ incredibly distracting.

If this had the same rules as before, this could be to the death. Skye refused to kill someone who was forced to be there. First off she'd try talking.

When she thought about diffusing a human bomb though, Skye realized she was probably not the best candidate for the job. Despite now knowing why, Skye couldn't help the anger that coursed through her veins from the drugs they'd forced into her and extended by mere circumstance.

Then that damn _lust._

Honestly, it was getting hard to think. Her mind was becoming muddier by the moment and she wasn't positive how long she could continue to stave off these feelings.

They'd been building up since she'd encountered Priya. Though… there had been a moment when they backed off a little: when she'd kissed Lincoln. It was quick and only helped the symptoms slightly, but it really had helped.

She needed to focus now.

"Lincoln, I'm sorry," she said, grabbing shoulder to turn him away from the group. He was stunned but excited at whatever prospect it was that she was touching him, considering he was under the same love spell as she. Skye took both his hands in her own and rose to her toes, kissing him heavily on the lips.

Every moment was like a welcome reprieve. Like the sickness was being lifted, that snakebite venom was being sucked away.

Still Skye couldn't help the angry tears. How could they get through this? This was her and Lincoln's… what, third kiss? All of it had been under duress. It had all almost been forced. Marred.

Hunter belatedly noticed and started pulling them apart with protests, but Skye waved him away.

"No, I did that on purpose," she told him.

"I have no doubt in my mind you did!" Hunter screeched.

 _"_ _No,"_ Skye insisted. "I needed to focus."

Priya giggled. "See! You're feeling better, right? Because you're giving in!"

"Fantastic…" Hunter muttered. "You should probably share your random plans with the rest of the class from now on."

Lincoln, still holding onto one of Skye's hands, stepped in front of her. "She doesn't have to explain everything to you," he growled.

"She sort of does," Hunter snapped back. "We're all in this together, and the only way we'll get out of it is together."

Skye felt split, as though she wanted to defend Lincoln and spew angry venomous words at Hunter, but at the same time she knew he was right. He was just trying to protect them and do what was best for everyone. Her mind was not about to admit that to him though.

Instead she ignored the two and stepped forward, the haze of lust dimming enough for her to address the new man.

"Hey, guy, what's your name?" Skye called out.

He recoiled a bit in shock, as though he hadn't expected her to speak directly to him. Made sense. When you were stuck in a pit to fight like dogs, you might not want to get too attached to your opponent.

"That Kane man calls me Melting Man-"

Skye shook her head with impatience. "What's your _real_ name?"

"Joey."

"Joey, we don't want to fight you."

It was then Skye felt a shock. A small shock, a tiny insistent push inside her head.

God. Freaking. _Damn it._

"Stupid chip!" she shrieked, pounding on her own head in frustration. So much for the things 'never working again,' as Fitz had said. Though he probably didn't think she'd be back in Kane's hands…

"You felt that too?" asked Lincoln.

"Clearly!" Skye snapped, but checked herself. "I'm sorry, I just- well I'm angry. But we knew that and I'm sick of apologizing so you guys might just have to deal with it sometimes." She turned to Joey abruptly. "Do you want to fight us?"

"Not… really. But I don't want to die."

"Then we aren't going to do it," Skye said firmly. "Ah! No matter how many times you shock us, you damn sadists!" Skye shouted to the ceiling as she felt another blip of pain.

As soon as she finished her sentence though, everyone was shouting. Jemma, Lincoln, Hunter, Priya and the new guy.

Not her though.

They clutched their heads and fell to their knees as Skye whipped around helplessly, feeling as though she'd been wrapped into her own personal nightmare. Watching other people in pain. It didn't take too long for her to make a decision.

"Fine!" she screeched and ran forward. "I'm fighting him. Do you hear me? I'm doing it!"

Everyone gasped in relief as they let go of their heads. Jemma had fallen to ground. Lincoln stood at an odd angle, as though he'd irritated his injured ankle while he'd been distracted. Priya was clutching herself with wide eyes. Terrified.

Skye stared forward at the scared innocent man she just promised to fight.

"Skye!" Jemma huffed. "You don't have your powers!"

She gulped as she stared at Joey. Him having been pitted against so many of them, along with her not having powers and not really wanting to fight back anyhow… well, her chances weren't all too good.

Even so, she waved off protests from her team and walked forward. Better her than them who had to lose their morality of taking an innocent life, or _their_ life.

She raised her arms to a fighting position and her opponent automatically raised his, clearly using his power.

Or… trying to.

Skye cocked her head in confusion at just about the same time as him. He poised his open palm at her harder, with more force. Nothing happened at first, but then Skye felt a small tingling on her stomach. It was getting warm. Her clothes were growing hot.

Skye still had on the clothes she'd changed into at the Playground, which included a belt. Now, said belt was beginning to burn.

Skye picked up her shirt to inspect it and found it had gone even further: her belt was beginning to melt.

Hissing in pain she began to try and discard the thing. She quickly pulled it from her pant loops and managed to throw the thing away. She'd been fairly close to just dropping her pants altogether, but had managed to work swiftly enough that it wasn't necessary.

Before she knew it, Joey was tumbling onto her. She'd been distracted by her now burnt stomach and let him take them both to the ground, where she landed hard on her back as the man's weight pushed her even farther.

He wrapped hands around her throat. "Please just go to sleep, go to sleep," he mumbled. Though that actually sounded almost welcoming, Skye knew that wasn't an option.

She wove her hands upward to break the hold, but it wasn't entirely necessary. Hunter was hauling Joey off of her a moment later, slamming a hard punch into his gut.

"Stop…" Skye tried to shout. But her vocal chords on fire for the time being and it came out as sort of a wheeze. Lincoln and Jemma were crouched to help her but she ran passed them, putting herself in front of Joey with spread arms. "Stop."

Everyone in the room hissed or gasped then, as a small amount of pain slammed into their heads simultaneously. It wasn't a lingering shock, just a brief reprimand.

"Thank you," Joey huffed as quickly as he was capable. Skye turned to give him a small –most likely pitiful- smile, to find him staring at her with awe. As though she were the second coming.

Everyone began to scream again, even Skye. She was feeling the horrific chip as well. She squinted and braced herself, willing for it to pass. It did not pass, continuing for long , anguished seconds.

Before it came to an end she felt the air rush from her lungs.

Skye fell to the ground from the hard kick, rolling and gasping for air only to be punted once again.

"I'm sorry!" Joey shouted as he raised his leg again. "It just hurts so bad…"

Skye steadied herself to look up to him and saw Lincoln lunging. He rammed into Joey like a football player and the both slammed to the ground. Skye had one knee up to rush to them when she noticed someone else had beaten her to the punch.

Priya was between them. They stopped and stared at her, Joey as though in a dream. She had a hand on each of their arms.

"Create love… not war," she said almost pleadingly and gave them a sad smile.

Joey stared at the girl in a way that scared Skye. She rushed over to put herself between them.

But then both Lincoln was staring at her like a cartoon puppy with his heart beating outside his chests, while Joey gazed at Lincoln in the same way.

The melting man sprang forward to cup his face and Lincoln dodged backwards, narrowly avoiding him. Joey missed and fell forward, right into Skye.

"Don't touch her!" Lincoln shouted, beside himself as he threw a punch at Joey's mouth. The guy didn't look co-ordinated or trained, but he definitely had motivation not to be hurt. He threw out his palm at Lincoln.

His wrist cuffs turned bright red with scalding heat.

"Stop it!" Skye cried out at the same time Lincoln did in pain. Foolishly, she realized, she ran to Lincoln's side instead of making the man stop what he was doing. Hunter had her covered as he rushed forward to grip the man's arm.

"Enough!" Hunter ordered. Immediately the cuffs began to cool, but there was no doubt in Skye's mind Lincoln would have horrible burns. "Take it down a notch. We can work this out."

"How!" shouted Joey desperately. His eyes truly searched Hunter for an answer. When was not met with one, he shoved his palm back at Lincoln.

Where it did nothing.

He tried again and again, but to Skye's utmost relief it did not do anything.

"Why isn't it working?" Joey exclaimed in frustration and began lashing out. He nearly hit Priya in a blind rage.

"Watch out!" said Hunter, pulling her out of the way.

Skye felt like an awful pressure seeped out of her head then. Something was different. Something that had been dreadfully distracting and terrible had just disappeared, as though she hadn't been in complete control of her body. But now she was.

"Hunter!" exclaimed Simmons happily. "Do you realize what you're doing?"

"No!" he said in defense and let go of Priya's arm, though held onto Joey's insistently.

"Hold her hand again," ordered Lincoln through a deep breath. Skye felt it too, those emotions brought on by Priya when he'd let her go.

"What? Why!" Hunter exclaimed.

"Because you're turning off their powers!" said Jemma.

Priya beamed. "Really?" She hopped up and down. "You keep getting more amazing!"

"I-but." Joey stammered. He looked around helplessly. "I have to fight you! Or…"

Hunter punched him in the head. Hard.

"Hunter!" Simmons and Skye shouted.

"What!" he said as Joey slumped to the ground, unconscious. "That counts as winning, right?"

Skye honestly wasn't sure. There were two types of matches when she and Lincoln had been there: time and death. If this one had a time limit, that would work…

Hunter made a strange gasping noise, and Skye looked down to see his cuffs had lit up. She would have known without looking though. She'd felt that rush of warmth that was directed immediately at Lincoln quite quickly.

"Uh… Think my powers just went out," Hunter said.

"Yep," said Skye.

"Definitely," heaved Simmons.

"Grand," he muttered, dropping Priya's arm.

"So we only have Priya's turned on now?" asked Lincoln.

Skye was about to snap, something along the lines of "duh", when she felt a small tingle run through her hands. From the gloves.

She remembered this blissful feeling from the museum. When those people would come to ogle them her restraints would turn off. The chronic sickness she'd felt would go away and she'd felt unrestrained. She'd felt free.

Which had been just as ridiculous then as it was now, but Skye didn't care. Having her powers back felt _good._

She went to grin at her friends only to find Lincoln smiling as well, as sparks flew from his fingertips.

"Oh thank god," muttered Hunter. "Some experienced players."

"This doesn't bode entirely well though," Simmons said as she doused the mood. "It could mean we're about to face something terrible."

It was then that a large growl reverberated through the arena, sounding as though it had come from just outside.

"Ooooh," cooed Priya. "Like whatever that was?"

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Good call, princess."

She giggled. "It's actually Priya! But I do like princess. It's very pretty!"

Hunter stared at her as though his brain might melt out of him from the disbelief he was sporting, but before he could make any other remarks a wall began to open up. A large portion of the wall.

It rumbled and shook the place with large noises, but even more prominent were the snarls and growls they heard. Skye and Lincoln took the front of the group. The power scales had switched for the most part, and whatever was coming for them did not sound like it would be affected by Priya's power.

They braced themselves, but not for what came running through the open wall. Or better yet, who.

May, Coulson and Mack.

Running for their lives. They caught eyes with Skye and the others and didn't even bother to be shocked or relieved, they started shooing them away. Telling them to turn around from the danger behind them. But where could they go?

"We have to get out of here!" shouted Mack when the three got close.

"You just came through the only exit!" Jemma exclaimed.

"We can't… we can't stop it," heaved Coulson. "Mack and I tried. It's almost impenetrable."

"What is it?" asked Skye.

"Hmm," mused Priya. She had her fingers on her chin as though an artist staring at their work in thought. "Looks like a big dog to me."

The growling echoed through the whole room along with the stomping sounds of its massive paws. The bulldog looking creature slobbered through its bared teeth and growling.

Skye considered herself a dog person most of the time, but she really wouldn't mind a big fluffy kitten at the moment.

May looked more concerned and scared than ever. Which still wasn't trembling in her shoes, but just… high on the May scale. She let out an exasperated breath that showed she was still just somewhat annoyed the by the situation before introducing them to their opponent.

"Guys, meet Lockjaw."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this all seems very random but I actually do have a complete outline of where this story is going ;) Maybe... ten more chapters I think?


	11. A Bird in the Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz, Bobbi, and Ward meet up with some familiar faces.

"Fitz!"

"Jemma! Jemma I'm coming!"

"Fitz, please hurry!"

He was trying to hurry. He really was, but Fitz couldn't tell which way was up to which was down, let alone where her voice was coming from. As though it were bouncing off the walls. Like it were just an echo. Like…

She wasn't really there?

Of course she was here! Somewhere! They'd all been captured, and unless Kane to her straight to the chopping block-

No. No. _No._ Fitz refused to believe that Jemma Simmons was dead.

Another scream.

Jemma Simmons very well might have been being tortured, though. But he would save her. On his life, he would save her.

Fitz ran and ran and ran, until he was so utterly lost that it almost helped him, having to rely on gut instinct. Instinct found her.

She was lying on the ground, bloodied and bruised and beaten. Leo could have thrown up on sight.

"Oh god, Jemma!"

He rushed forwards, but his advance was halted by hands on his shoulders. They dragged him backwards through his protests and struggles until they reached the wall, slamming him hard against it. His back hit shackles that were soon wrapped around his wrists.

A man in a Hydra mask stepped forwards. Even through ominous goggles glinting on a barely visible face, Fitz could tell he was sneering.

"Perfect," said the man, admiring his handiwork. "Now you've got a great seat to watch me finish my work."

"No," Fitz whispered, watching as the man pulled out a knife and moved towards Jemma's bleeding form. "JEMMA! No stop, please!"

"Fitz!" came a new voice. It was raw and mangled and scary, but concerned. "Fitz…"

The person speaking came into view. Or perhaps not person… maybe _thing_. Sharp and mangled edges covered it, with a gurgled terrifying voice to match.

Fitz tried to shrink away. "Get away!" he shrieked, though his main concern was still Jemma. He made sure to keep her in his sights.

"Fitz, you must focus. This isn't real. Agent Simmons isn't here."

"Isn't here? I can see her! She's right bloody there-" Fitz shouted with a fierce point of his hand. He stopped midsentence though, because, well, there _was_ nothing there.

There was _nothing_ there.

He wasn't even tied up. The Hydra man was gone along with any traces of blood. Like they'd never even been there. Like it hadn't been real.

It hadn't been real?

"It wasn't real," Fitz heaved in exasperation.

As though the haze of drugs lifted with the realization, the figure before him stopped looking so much like a monster and returned to its normal state. Which was… still somewhat monstrous.

"Raina?" said Fitz as he took in the woman before him. He heard footsteps and turned around to see Bobbi fast approaching with a jogging Ward behind her.

"Fitz are you ok?" Bobbi panted, turning him towards her with hands on his shoulders. He nodded affirmation, her attention completely focused on him until he'd done so. In fact, Bobbi hadn't seemed to notice Raina was even standing there, because once she did she swung Fitz behind herself protectively.

"Raina," she said, eyeing her up and down wearily. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"

"Reliving hell," she muttered. She took her face in her hands. "It's almost worse this time."

Fitz shook Bobbi's grip off of himself and stepped towards the Inhuman. Why was Bobbi being so abrasive? Naja had betrayed them… he honestly didn't think Raina'd had anything to do with it.

"Don't worry, you can come with us. We're helping each other," Fitz offered the now crying girl. She looked up from her hands.

"Even… him?" Raina jerked her head at Ward, who rolled his eyes at the comment.

"That's temporary," cut in Bobbi. "United for the sake of a common enemy and all."

Raina nodded frantically. "You would be right about a common enemy. Kane is getting restless… he wants _deaths_. I fear that if he doesn't get them, it will put us all in danger." She paused, scoffing. "Worse danger…"

Fitz looked at Bobbi in the absence of Simmons to share his thoughts with through a glance. But Bobbi didn't meet his eyes. She'd turned rigid and focused, clearly thinking as her face became hard.

Fitz focused on Raina once again. "So if we don't kill the next person we happen upon, we'll be… punished or something?" he asked.

Raina nodded. "In a matter of speaking. I'm sure Kane will have a more creative way to do it."

"This is correct," said the monotone voice from above as a blue light blinked on.

"Ah, _CAMI_ ," said Ward causally with some sarcasm thrown in. "Was wondering when you were going to show up again. I was starting to miss you."

"Noted, Grant Ward. CAMI has been missed and will try to make more regular visits."

Bobbi scoffed. "Of course, be nice to the _evil_ person…"

"CAMI has a gift for you all."

Raina recoiled in fear, clearly sensing that it would not be a pleasant present. Bobbi cocked a brow. "You do?"

"CAMI does. Please enter this room."

A part of the wall opened upwards, though having no seams in it to have given away the fact that it was a door even a moment prior. The group shared nervous and wary glances, though Ward spearheaded their movement as curiosity got the better of him.

Concern at what was inside began nagging at Fitz too when he soon heard what was coming from the room: muffled shouts and screams, as though someone were gagged.

Fitz learned upon entering that his listening had identified correctly. The sight before him was that of which a person tied tightly to a chair with a gag in her mouth.

Naja.

"Kane, Tobias' gift to the SHIELD agents is presenting them with the simple kill of the woman who betrayed them."

"What…" muttered Bobbi in disbelief.

"Does Barbara Morse mean 'how'?" asked CAMI. "If so, it is to be done with your newly acquired powers. Each of yours have the ability to end this Inhuman's life."

"We're not killing anyone!" protested Fitz. "No. No bloody way!"

"She is foe to you," CAMI informed. "She is the reason you are here."

Blame gripped Fitz in his gut, because yes, that was definitely true. But it wasn't entirely true.

"She did what she thought she had to because a mad man kidnapped and threatened her!"

"So the lizard woman gets a chance at redemption," Ward piped up. "That's nice."

"Oh shut up, asshole," Bobbi hissed.

"Of course, I'm the asshole," Ward muttered, lazily walking away. "I betrayed the team and yada yada. Even when every moment since then has been trying to _make up_ for my wrongs."

"How is it that we're debating being forced to kill someone, and you have to make it about you?" Bobbi sneered.

"Because it's completely relevant to the situation."

Fitz closed his eyes. He didn't want to debate this. He didn't want to tell Ward that his actions had been his own. That he'd tried to give him a second chance and a third chance. That torturing a SHIELD agent was not making up for anything and completely disillusioned. That even if it were an accident or the _best_ intentions, when you give someone brain damage and almost kill the woman they love it would be near impossible to forgive them.

The scary thing was he believed that Ward really did think he had been doing the right things. Fitz didn't want to argue with someone so far-gone that it could lead them to a confrontation.

So he didn't say anything.

To his great and monumental surprise, Bobbi didn't either. Fitz was sure she wouldn't be able to contain herself, but she merely seethed, rolled her eyes, possibly imagined painful ways for him to die in her head…

But she didn't say a word.

Fitz walked purposefully forward.

"What are you doing?" asked Raina.

"Untying her. She's coming with us."

"What?" exclaimed Ward. "This is them giving us an out! We should take it or we'll _all_ end up dead."

"Yeah, and we'll be murderers," Fitz muttered, trying to undo the restraints. He was having a hard time.

" _I_ will do it. None of you have to watch," Ward offered sincerely, taking a step forward. Naja shrunk into her restraints, her head wincing as she recoiled.

"You'd burn her alive?" Fitz asked. "And be totally fine with it?"

Ward tilted his head back and forth as though struggling with a decision, but Leo had an idea that his mind had been made up. "If it's what has to be done…"

He got her wrists undone. "Well, that's not happening," he stated as she removed the gag. He helped her up.

"Thank you," she gasped through tears and imploring eyes. Her eyes were completely black, which was nothing knew, but now Fitz wondered if they made it easier to hide deception. She'd certainly played a convincing role back at the Playground.

"Don't make me regret it," he said gruffly.

Just because Fitz didn't want to murder her didn't mean he was happy with her.

"Great," snapped Ward. Bobbi's eyes clung to him in anger, but she still didn't say anything.

Raina hugged herself as she stared at Naja cautiously. Made sense. She'd probably been the one with Naja the most over the past few months, and the girl had betrayed her as well.

"We're all going to work together, understand?" Fitz told the odds and ends group. He doubted any of them wanted to be with each other, and he knew that was only going to make the situation all the harder.

"Understood," said Bobbi. "But… what are we supposed to do?"

In possible answer to her question, a hallway began to light up gently. It was an almost calming sight as it resembled the color of the sun. Near inviting them.

"Guessing we should follow the yellow brick road," said Ward with a grin.

Fitz used to think it was hard to believe Ward had such a different personality. That every new trait he saw was just something he hadn't noticed before, but he soon had to accept that this was the real him and the other had been a charade. This Ward smiled easier. That was the main difference, and Fitz didn't like it. It was a crocodile grin every time. He was right this time, though.

Leo sighed. "Let's move on, then."

They trudged on for long minutes, the hallway seeming to never end. Despite it's calming appearance, everyone was on edge. Especially Bobbi. She looked like a cat poised to strike, staring at Ward.

In fact, it got odder with every step. She appeared more strained, more intent, every moment. Fitz was about to ask her about it when-

"Fitz. Can I speak with you?" Naja asked quietly, tugging him gently. He nodded and the allowed the group to get large paces ahead of them.

"What?" he asked with a shrug. He had a hard time looking her in the eyes.

"I just… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I did. I knew it was going to bring you all here and I was so scared of this place that I subjected you all to the same thing," she said, eyes brimming with tears.

Fitz sighed, finally taking in her sights completely as he turned to her. "Naja…. I know you're looking for forgiveness, but I just can't give that to you yet." He paused. "You can't change the past. Just… try to do better now, ok?"

She didn't nod or acknowledge his question in the slightest.

"I wasn't looking for forgiveness," she said, so quietly he almost didn't hear her. She began to blink. "I just wanted you to understand… I'm too far-gone." She gazed up at him, her face skewed into determination and fear. She was shaking. "You shouldn't have let me out of that room."

Naja pounced on him before Fitz could get so much as another breath in. Her claws wrapped deftly around his throat while her tail on his stomach held him in place.

She'd done it so quickly he'd barely been able to make a sound. So swiftly that they hadn't made much of a scuffle as they hit the ground.

Fitz tried to pry her off but she was far too strong. He looked around for an electronic. Something his new powers would react to, but there was none. He felt himself slip away.

WHAM.

A body forced itself onto Naja's form and knocked her clear off Fitz. He turned and heaved from the lack of air until gentle hands patted his shoulder. Bobbi asking him if he was alright. He couldn't answer yet.

A hiss redirected his attention to Naja and the person that had thrown her off. Raina.

Naja snarled and opened her arms to show off her entire, and quite frankly terrifying, body.

"Kane told me to kill the agents!" she growled in a warped voice. "I have no quarrel with you."

"I have been trying to help them for months to find solace for what I did to them," exclaimed Raina. "You will _not_ hurt them now!"

Naja nearly roared in breathy tones that came out like another hiss and leapt onto Raina. The woman caught her and threw her to the ground, pouncing and throwing strike after strike. Naja pushed up and got the upper hand momentarily before they were rolling around the ground with their multiple attacks. It was impossible to keep track of anything.

"Fitz, get up; you have to move," Bobbi said as she pulled him from the ground.

"But… but Raina!"

"I will help her-"

The room began to shake, knocking everyone over or unsteady.

Ward, who'd been standing by observing to see his best move, surveyed the area carefully.

"The walls are closing in," he said calmly. He reached for Fitz, hauling him back up to his feet before he could protest and gave him a shove. "Move, move!"

"No, Raina!" Fitz shouted as Bobbi headed to help her.

"Go Fitz!" Raina exclaimed as Naja's tail whipped her to the side. As soon as she was distracted by the blow, Naja bolted for the agents. But despite Raina's condition she stood back up and grabbed Naja's tail, halting her progress. "All of you, get out of here!"

"You heard the lady," Ward growled. He began ushering the two of them forward.

"Don't-" Bobbi snarled. "I have to-"

"You won't even get back to her before you are crushed between the concrete," Ward pronounced. It was true. The room was already half as large. "Now move!"

He pulled Bobbi, to which she clearly did not appreciate but began to move. To run.

They had to run.

The walls were becoming slimmer with every passing second.

Fitz got through first, and watched how Ward gracefully turned sideways. Bobbi was snug through the fit, but managed to pull herself forward before the opening came to a complete close.

It was silent, save for some heavy breathing. Fitz had to heave greatly from the excursion, though the other two didn't look so winded. Bobbi mainly appeared pissed off, actually.

"Congratulations," said CAMI out of the blue. "Death has been accomplished."

Then she turned off.

"God… damn it!" Bobbi shrieked, kicking the wall. "I waited too damn long!"

"Waited?" muttered Fitz.

"Oh, couldn't you tell?" said Ward. "She wanted to kill me. She figured if someone had to die, why not Grant Ward?"

"Because… you _deserve it_!" she hollered, nearly making Fitz retreat at the sound of her voice. He'd never heard her so upset.

"Bobbi… Bobbi calm-"

"Do not tell me to calm down!"

Her hands erupted in a glow.

"Ah," Ward appraised with a nod. "That's why you were collecting the light's color. So you could just shoot me when you had enough power. Good idea."

"Clearly not good enough as you're still breathing-" She stepped forward and Fitz stepped in front of her, facing her.

"Ok as unfortunate as this is… we don't need anymore death now! Even him!" Fitz exclaimed.

"You're wrong Fitz," Bobbi growled. "This is _exactly_ what we need."

Fitz couldn't do anything but watch as Bobbi sprang at Ward.


	12. Man's Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our team is approached by a new Inhuman... who happens to look like a dog.

"That's a big dog." Hunter remarked.

"It's not even a dog," said Coulson.

Skye shook her head. "I'm with Hunter on this one. That's a dog. Just a really, really _big_ dog."

"The AI told us it was an Inhuman-"

Mack was interrupted by May, whose stern voice overtook his. "It doesn't matter. We just need to take it down."

"If it's Inhuman it's probably smart," said Skye. The thing was growling before them, barking a bit in warning. It wasn't quite attacking yet. "Maybe we could reason with it."

" _No,"_ May stressed. "Just knock him out, he's too dangerous. Does anyone have their powers?"

May wasn't against talking through things, but this was just a large dog. An animal, and it wasn't like they were going to kill it…

Her thoughts drifted though. She felt... odd. Of course she'd felt odd since the moment she'd woken up with the ability to read other's feelings, but this was worse. Along with the nerves shared by the group, there was want. Want for a very specific thing: each other.

Mack put his hand to his face as he began to sweat, while Coulson looked at Melinda longingly. She probably would have returned the stare, if she weren't currently having the urge to caress every single person in front of her.

"Uh oh," said Skye.

"What?" May said tiredly.

"I think Priya is getting to you guys."

"Who's Priya?" asked Coulson.

"Me!" the blonde sang with a bounce.

"The only person I didn't know the name of," said Coulson. "You'd think I would have guessed that…"

The dog finally charged, ferociously heading straight for them with teeth bared.

"Talk later!" Skye shouted, shoving her friends behind herself. "Lincoln!"

He stepped forward and the two of them shot out their hands. As electricity and vigorous waves surged forward, Lockjaw was forced his side while his mouth snapped uselessly. His upturned legs still tried to move him as they flailed in the air.

Skye carefully walked sideways with Lincoln following her lead until they were perpendicular to where they'd been, slowly pushing the dog against the wall and clearing a path to the door.

"Go!" Skye shouted.

They didn't need to be told again. May remained in the rear to make sure the whole group started to move, _including_ the two Inhumans.

"Skye, let's go!" May said, trying to grab her shoulder.

"No!" Skye grit out in determination. The dog was on his back now, but her hold was weakening. If it broke before Skye had a head start she wouldn't get away.

"I'm not leaving without you!" Melinda insisted, though Skye barely glanced at her. Lincoln was strangely calm beside her, she could feel it. "You too, Campbell!"

"I'll stay here and hold him off," he said. "You two go!"

"No way," Skye said, pushing more.

"Skye, my ankle. I irritated it and now I can't move far. _I_ should be the one to keep this thing here."

Skye commanded her powers a little harder in irritation, causing the dog that was already struggling up against the wall to falter and fall down completely.

May took her chance.

She grabbed both Inhumans and tugged them by the shoulders. It was honestly probably dangerous, doing so while they were still shooting their powers, but she saw it as her one shot to take them away if they wouldn't come willingly.

"Now move!" she said, giving Skye a shove and helping Lincoln hold onto her shoulder. Skye quickly took him by the other side to help as well, and though it slowed Skye's own progress neither protested. They needed the aid and Skye was unlikely to leave them on their own anyway.

While the dog regained his senses, they hobbled out of the arena and into a hallway, where Skye began to act as their guide.

"Those rooms… the boxes! We could hide from Lockjaw in there," said Skye. She navigated to the best of her ability to find one. Still looking, they began to here a large thumping, rapid but steady in pace.

"I think the dog is up and about again," grumbled Lincoln.

Skye pointed ahead. "Aha! That's Box One. Oh… I forgot Coulson kind of blasted through the door a bit ago…"

"It'll do," said May. She wasn't sure of that. She _really_ wasn't sure of that. A dog could probably sniff out people hiding merely in a crevice if it wanted to, and this dog was Inhuman. It was possibly just as smart as them.

She doubted they could get away now even if Lincoln weren't slowing the pace though, so it was their only hope.

Skye sat down first and so May handed her Lincoln carefully. He basically lay on top of her, while May crouched in. Half of her was almost outside the tiny room.

"This is more snug than you let on," May told Skye, cocking a brow.

"Yeah, definitely not made for three people."

"Or one…" Lincoln muttered.

A large snarl caused them all to quiet, and they became still as statues.

It was then that those strange and adamant feelings began welling up in May again. She had to breathe with her mouth open to release heat that was now rapidly swelling through her body.

She felt near magnetized to Lincoln and Skye, and when she looked at them, she knew that those emotions were not resonating from May herself - at least, not all of them.

Skye's head was slowly drifting deeper onto the ground so Lincoln was very much on top of her, and not just in a support sense. He allowed his legs to separate and straddled her easily.

May's breath hitched. The sight before her was stirring up a lot of responses. One was to berate the two of them. Ask how they could possibly be taking the time to advance romantically at this moment. But honestly, May could understand because she could _feel_ it. Which brought her to possible response number two:

Kiss Lincoln.

Now, while kissing the baby agent sort of felt (well, very much felt) like the right thing to do, logic had often won May over and though it was a little more difficult than usual, that's exactly what happened then. She did not kiss Lincoln.

But they were supposed to be quiet, which eliminated the berating option so… response number three it was, then.

She slapped him.

He jerked his gaze away from Skye and May felt the betrayal in her own mind. Even Skye was distracted from the unprecedented attack.

Lincoln appeared caught between screaming obscenities at her and too shocked to move from his appalled face. May put a finger to her lips in order for him to keep quiet. Their eyes widened, informing her that they'd been reminded of the stakes.

The large bulldog crept ever closer as they heard it approach. The growling was dim in warning and doubt, not sure they were close. Soon they could smell its foul breath, even feel it.

May noticed what she hadn't in her haste before. He wasn't just a large brown dog, but had something that resembled a wishbone on top of his head. Maybe he really _wasn't_ just an animal.

As the space between them closed May felt something change.

Loneliness and desperation. Of course animals could feel such things, but they would show it. If this creature's insides emotions were displaying different than what he showed, she decided the thing was somewhat human. Or at least had their range of emotions.

She stood up.

"May!" Skye hissed quietly. She merely put out a hand to placate Skye and wandered out to the canine. He set his sights on her and she felt his drive as he began to advance. May wondered if she had been very wrong.

"You've been coerced into being here," May said presumptively. Lockjaw didn't stop, but she did think he might have slowed. "So have we. They're going to hurt you, and you need to hurt others to avoid it."

The dog began to move briskly again as his determination picked back up.

"Hurt someone you love," May corrected herself.

Lockjaw stopped in his tracks. His snarls subsided so that he merely stared at her, but with shoulders still tense and poised.

"I'm sorry," May said, voice hoarse. "That puts you in a horrible position."

The dog softened his position, eyes turning sideways. He felt… shame.

"It's alright," she assured him. "We just have to not hurt each other. If we team up, we'll have an army and Kane will have _nothing_."

May knew the man himself was most likely listening to every word. She even glanced up to see if she could find any cameras to make sure he knew it as well.

She felt understanding come from the animal and for a moment thought she'd broken through to him.

Then he leapt at her.

"May!"

"It's alright, Skye," May said calmly before the Inhuman could use her powers. Lockjaw had stopped before May in his pounce. He sat on his haunches and lifted his neck to reveal a golden collar.

"This limits your powers?" she asked the dog. Though he had definitely seemed to be understanding what she'd said so far, May was still a little shocked when the canine nodded. It was such a human gesture. "So you think Kane will have control of you even if we work together." The dog gave a long blink.

Skye stood up, tentatively. "Is the person he has against you a part of your family?"

Lockjaw tensed, eyes moving over the two women suspiciously, as though he did not like the thought of a team up on him. But he nodded.

"There's no way you want them to live this way. In this place," Skye said, her words boiling heavy emotions to the surface as she said them. "Our best bet is to not hurt _anyone_ , no matter what we're ordered to do."

He shifted his eyes from Skye to May, who was staring at him imploringly. She wondered if she could have managed such a heart to heart without this new power of true empathy…

Lockjaw shifted his gaze to Lincoln and bounded over to where the Inhuman sat, still slumped over from his injured foot.

Skye's worry peaked immediately and May knew she was about to scold the animal. Melinda gripped her hand and tugged to hold her back. By the time Skye was over the distraction, she could clearly see Lockjaw was trying to help Lincoln up and onto the canine's back. Lockjaw was struggling though.

He barked at them.

"Oh wow, thank you!" Skye huffed as she ran over to help him pick up Lincoln.

The dog chuffed in what May supposed was meant to be a friendly gesture, though it didn't sound entirely welcoming.

"Whoa," Lincoln muttered as he steadied himself onto the dog. "This is weird."

The dog gurgled a bit, making an almost "harrumph" noise. Like an old grumpy man. May got a vibe of impatience.

She almost smiled. She actually might have grinned. "I don't think he's too thrilled about the situation either."

Lincoln looked down unsurely, patting the dog in reassurance. "Thank you."

"Alright, let's find the others," said May.

Lockjaw took the lead, moving much faster than he had been before. May decided he must have been trying to bide his time; appearing as though he were trying without giving it his all. He really hadn't wanted to hurt them if it could be avoided.

He stopped to sniff at one point, gearing his head around a corner. May went to check it out and-

"There you are!" said Simmons. Beside her Mack breathed a sigh of relief and set down Joey, who was still out cold.

"Thank god," breathed Coulson. "We thought we'd split up again."

Skye came forward with a smile. "Nope. Actually, uh, I think we might have gained a comrade…"

The large dog moved into sight, appearing no less formidable and unfriendly than he had before. Except for the fact that their friend was now seated upon his back. Given that Lincoln was there willingly, it helped ease the appearance of the dog.

Though Lockjaw still look mainly grumpy from that.

Or maybe he merely felt that way and May was tuning it to it. It was hard to tell.

"How are you guys?" asked Skye.

Hunter breathed in an overdramatic gesture. "Well, we've been having a little trouble because of that one," he said, nudging a hand backwards at Priya.

May gave them a once over that wasn't really needed when she was getting a live broadcast into their minds. Plus, she was feeling it too.

"I don't know what the big fuss is about that," said Hunter. "Yeah, I feel a bit of temptation… but not bad. Probably not much worse than you all feel around me everyday!"

"Do you even have one of those little voices that tell you when to stop talking?" Skye sneered while Mack was rubbing both his hands into his horned head.

"JEMMA!"

The abrupt shout diverted all of their attentions. It was far off, but it was clearly-

"Fitz," Simmons whispered. "Fitz! I'm coming!" She began to trot around the corner.

"Jemma, wait!" Skye shouted, running after her. She, in turn, was quickly followed by Coulson and Mack.

May looked to Lockjaw. "Think you can check it out too?"

An indignant bark later the bulldog bounded ahead, making Lincoln waver on top of him. Lockjaw was up their with the rest of them in no time.

May smiled to herself, now realizing their new companion really was all in.


	13. Paper Tigers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The groups are finally reunited.

"Help!" Fitz cried. "Is anybody there! Simmons!"

She ran faster. Though her heart felt like it was going to burst out her chest from the energy she was exerting, she still thought the voice had gotten closer than the distance she'd put in herself. As though he was coming to her as well… maybe he was running from something.

Leo turned the corner and went from a sprint to a dead stop, like a dear in headlights once he found her eyes. He said something too quiet to hear, but Simmons was quite sure she saw him mouth her first name.

He bolted forward just as Skye came up beside her, so Jemma left her friend in the dust to meet Leo. They ran into a full forced hug from each of them.

"Thank god-" Fitz started

"I'm so happy-" said Simmons.

"-you're alright!" they finished together, coaxing a sad smile from them. Jemma caressed his face a moment – Leo's skin was _so_ soft- until she remembered the urgency his voice had held moments earlier.

"But what's going on? You were shouting!" Jemma exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah. Follow me. Hurry!" Fitz said, grabbing Jemma's hand and towing her.

Skye rolled her eyes as she jogged just after them. "Well, hello to you…"

"This isn't funny, Skye!" Fitz said. "Bobbi's in trouble."

Skye turned almost red with embarrassment- or perhaps anger, as she scowled- and began to jog with them silently. They turned a couple corners until they came upon a strange enclosure. It wasn't too big, perhaps the size of an average living room, but it was practically see-through. Simmons could just make out ripples that lined the edges to show them where its threshold was.

As worrisome as a forcefield was, it was what was inside that was truly unnerving.

Bobbi and Ward were fighting. It appeared to be hand-to-hand combat at the moment, but there were scorch marks and other odd imprints that pointed to powers of a sort being used in some capacity.

"Jemma, can you get Bobbi out of there?" Fitz asked when they stopped. "The AI trapped them inside that thing when they wanted to fight. It wants one of them to die in there!"

"Fitz… I can't-"

"CAMI told me you can go through walls! If your new power is anything like mine I know it's scary, but you have to try!"

"I can't, Fitz!" Jemma shrieked. He stilled in shock. "They turned off my abilities." She held up her wrists, displaying the cuffs in explanation.

Leo looked around with such a helpless expression that Jemma could have cried. "Then what do we do?" he asked, turning back at the fighting mess.

Ward and Bobbi were going at it full force. They were equally matched it seemed, blocking most of each other's moves and only getting in light hits. Still, fatigue was bound to catch up on them and someone could slip. As much as Jemma loved the idea of Bobbi beating Ward to a bloody pulp, the girl still wasn't one hundred percent. She could get seriously hurt.

"I'll try to take it down," Skye said, stepping up.

"Me too," Coulson said as he stood beside her. Skye raised an eyebrow. "I'm still not entirely sure what they gave me in this hand, but I can give it a shot."

"But can you control it?" Skye shouted to Coulson, having to be loud as she began shooting massive waves into the forcefield. Despite the noise and force, her seismic energy bounced off as though it were a mere summer breeze. "Don't hurt yourself! Or you know… anyone else."

Coulson swallowed hard, clearly re-thinking the pros and cons. Skye's powers weren't making any sort of dent, so he probably should have tried at the very least…

" _Ruff,"_ came a low deep bark. Jemma was startled for a moment, but she was sure that could only come from one person. Or… being.

She wasn't entirely positive what May had done, but Lockjaw had been carrying Lincoln before, with support of both Skye and May. He was clearly helping them, so maybe he wasn't as bad as he had seemed.

Until he charged at them.

"Skye, Coulson, move!" she exclaimed.

Jemma ran forward to tackle both of them, moving out of the way just before Lockjaw rammed his head into the forcefield.

It was the first time Ward or Bobbi had stopped focusing on each other and their fight, but they sort of had to. Lockjaw was headbutting so hard that he was going through part of the field. He kept trying to move forward on his sliding paws, straining as he pushed.

"Holy crap. He's actually making a dent in it," admonished Skye. Simmons could only nod as she was in a similar state of awe. He was literally _bending_ the laser grid. How was he not in an immense amount of pain?

The dog pushed and pushed. Jemma wasn't entirely sure how such a fence worked, but he seemed to make an actual hole in it. As though he had stretched it far enough to break, but if he let go the thing would just snap back together.

Bobbi was heaving buckets of air and confused as she surveyed her surroundings. When she caught the eyes of her friends though, she bolted out of the hole. Unfortunately, Ward followed just after her.

The moment they were passed the threshold Lockjaw backed up and allowed the field to spring back into place. He fell to the ground in a heap, rasping as he tried to catch his breath. May rushed over, surveying him.

More pressing matters were occurring still, as Ward did not let up on Bobbi. Just after making it through he grabbed her ankle. Unlike how they'd been doing a near dance of dodging each other's moves inside that small room, Bobbi had been unprepared. She toppled over and was beneath him, when Ward's hand began to light… in flame!

He slammed his fist into the floor, where approximately a half a second earlier Bobbi's face had been. She began to try and fight again, clearly with the disadvantage from the ground when Hunter came flying at them from out of sight. He tackled Ward down and began throwing punch after punch. He grit his teeth and went at his work, not bothering for any snarky or snazzy remarks.

Ward finally recollected himself enough to counter and grabbed Hunter harshly. He was only holding the man's arm, so Hunter could very well still attack, but instead he started to scream. Ward was burning him.

It all had happened so quickly no one else had barely enough thought processing time to do anything, but Hunter's screams galvanized them. Lincoln leapt forward through obvious pain and sent a huge wave of electricity, while Skye used her gift to slide Ward across to the other side of the room for good measure.

"Stay down," Skye hissed, holding her hands up to him as though brandishing a weapon.

"Hey, we're all friends here," Ward said carefully, his voice slightly strained from the physical beating he'd been put through. "Bobbi wasn't doing anything she didn't want to."

Hunter was helping her up while she fussed over his burn. At Ward's comment everyone looked to her in question. She sighed. "He's right. He didn't attack me; I started it. Then those… perimeters came up to make it one on one and suddenly it was to the death."

"Which you were happy about," Ward explained, as though she'd forgotten the rest of the story. "I bet you boast about how it took both me and Kara to take you down after hours of torture. So when you saw it was just you and me, you thought you had me finished. Until now."

"Lucky you," Bobbi hissed. Hunter grabbed her hand quickly, beginning to stroke it tenderly.

Suddenly Jemma saw Mack turn the corner. He was still holding that one Inhuman, Joey, over his shoulder and that other new one was next to him as well.

Oh god. Not _her._

Simmons was still feeling the effects of Priya, as her body craved for her to run into Fitz's arms once again. If it hadn't been for a few rather life-threatening distractions, there was little doubt in her mind that she would have. Even Hunter had started feeling up Bobbi more than Jemma assumed he would be.

 _Ward_ under Priya's trance… Jemma couldn't help but shudder.

"We need to stop toting that girl around!" Jemma shrieked suddenly, pointing at Mack from across the room. She then gestured for him to stop, so he did. "Fitz, Bobbi and Ward haven't been affected yet. We need to keep her away from them."

"But Jemma," Skye said, nervously coming forward. "What about staying together?"

It made sense that Skye would have separation anxiety after being isolated all that time, but it was really quite foolish to expose them to Priya's powers if it was not necessary.

"We just need Priya to stay away from those three," Simmons said delicately. "We're not 'splitting up', we're just… making a bridge."

"A bridge?" said Lincoln doubtfully as he pulled himself up.

Jemma nodded. "Yes… we can go talk to Priya, come back and speak to Fitz and them."

"Ah, like that telephone game," said Hunter.

"Yes, precisely," said Jemma. "Well done simplifying it."

"That's his specialty," said Bobbi with a grin. Instead of taking a great offence, Lance sort of just rolled his eyes.

"What makes you think there's going to be much talking?" scoffed Ward.

"Was that a threat?" hissed Skye.

"No… it was an observation of the obvious," Ward replied. "Unless you guys have been having a different type of stay here. _We_ haven't gotten much of a rest."

The blue light that even Jemma was quickly becoming accustomed to blinked on.

"Greetings, gifteds," said the monotone voice.

"Back so soon?" asked Ward wryly.

"CAMI was told Grant Ward would like to see CAMI more often."

"You're here to be _nice_?" Skye snarled, and began advancing at the AI. "Ward just says 'oh, I'd like the robot around more often,' and you just show up? Are you his butler? Are you like a JARVIS to him?" Skye paused, but the light did not respond. "Why not to me! You always gave me the bare minimum of information and now you're just showing up to be _sweet?"_

"Quake, CAMI is here to inform. Not to appease Grant Ward."

Skye blinked. "Oh."

"What's the information?" asked Coulson.

"There is a course to complete."

"Like… school?" asked Fitz.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess more along the lines of an obstacle course," said Coulson.

"Phillip Coulson is correct," said the AI. "Anyone who completes the course will have their powers returned for the remainder of the game. Anyone that does not may be more susceptible to their disabling. Please prepare yourselves."

She blipped away.

Jemma glanced around uncertainly. "Erm, how are we meant to prepare?" she asked. "We don't even know what's going to happen!"

"Whoa!" Lincoln cried suddenly. He was sitting on the floor and frantically looking around himself. It took a moment for Jemma to even understand what was happening, but she soon saw what was causing the upset.

The ground beneath him was separating.

"Lincoln!" Skye shouted, attempting to duck down and help him.

They were both caught up in it then. The floor was shaking or trembling apart as though Skye were doing it, but almost melting. Or… tearing apart with incredible ease, a near gelatin substance. They slipped through.

"What the hell?" screeched Bobbi. She then appeared distracted by her ex-husband, who was caressing her arm rather insistently. "Hunter, stop that…"

CAMI came back. "New gifteds, hopefully this was enough time to prepare. The Inhumans will be returned if you all complete the course."

"So we all have to do it," said Bobbi.

"Yes we do," muttered Simmons in agreement. She realized that they couldn't keep Priya away any longer if they had any hope of getting Lincoln and Skye back. Which was… alright, she supposed. The feelings weren't too awful when they had these situations to distract them. She waved Mack over.

"I don't know about anyone else, but these abilities have been keeping me alive in here," said Ward. "Why wouldn't we want to do the course to keep them?"

"Maybe because it could be incredibly _dangerous_ ," sneered Fitz. "Some of us aren't as excited to _gamble with our lives_!"

Jemma certainly wasn't.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop the floor disappearing the moment Fitz's last word left his lips.


	14. Counting Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Lincoln get put in yet another unsavory position.

Skye felt herself fall on something as soon as she slipped through the floor. It had been eerily close to her point of falling, which she realized was because it had literally caught her. Had been expecting her.

She was enclosed into what felt like a box with limited space. It was a plastic –like substance under her fingertips as she moved them across the walls that encompassed her. It was fairly thin, and so she attempted to use her powers.

They weren't working. Trapped by the gloves that had apparently turned on while she'd been preoccupied with falling and with Lincoln.

Funnily enough, those two things were exactly what Skye was quite distracted by mere seconds later.

The box dropped open, leaving her to fall flatly to her stomach on a large, plush bed. After the falling bit, she was immediately back to worrying for her Inhuman partner.

Skye jolted with concern for the boy, wondering if a box had caught him as well. Maybe he'd just gone straight down, and lord knew how far down the floor was. He could be hurt somewhere, while she had been swept away into whatever useless place she'd been put…

Moments later a black box slipped into the room she'd barely acclimated with, dropping Lincoln similarly onto the bed next to Skye.

Skye found herself lingering on the strange drone that plopped him there. She watched it flit away. Where was Kane getting all this technology? She'd supposed he'd always had some… But impossible happenings were popping up like daisies!

Her thoughts all but dissipated the moment her eyes finally settled on Lincoln. She felt herself shiver and heave air and heat up. Clearly her symptoms were worse now that she was alone with him.

Alone. In a room. With a bed.

It was hard to even be angry though, all of a sudden. Every fiery emotion was racing through her blood and pumping her up, but it an entirely different way than hate.

_Lincoln. Lincoln. Lincoln. Lincoln._

His name beat through her with every flutter of her heart, every pulse that sent a wave through her. He was her mantra and chant and prayer. His face was her deity, somehow, and there was no way she could stop herself from worshipping him for another moment.

She hadn't so much as spoken a word to him before prying open his mouth with her own.

She felt disgusting and satisfied at the same time. Blissful and angry. Pathetic and superior, because she was getting exactly what she wanted. Because she was giving in at the same time.

She tasted the salt water that soon registered as tears. She was crying.

She opened her eyes briefly.

 _He_ was crying.

She wanted to throw up. Four. _Four_ times they'd kissed. Each worse than the last.

Skye sobbed as she continued, choking and nearly taking Lincoln's tongue with her. It didn't deter him. It didn't stop her. They'd appeared at an impasse, both miserable and relieved, and they were going to take the scraps of comfort until they no longer could.

When Skye finally felt the grip of those forced senses subside somewhat she pushed Lincoln away. It wasn't because he was being forceful –though neither of them were being too _gentle_ \- but because her hungry mouth hadn't wanted to stop. Lincoln had even tried moving his lips to her neck at one point, but she couldn't find herself able to not taste him and had kept them liplocked.

"Ok," she heaved, standing to pace the room in an attempt to clear her head. She had to think about something else, _talk_ about something else. So of course, she began to ramble. "Hopefully that was enough of a hit to take the edge off. Now, before we started… well, our refocusing tactic, I was beginning to think about what's going on here. Kane has more money… or resources or something. So I'm thinking-"

Skye stopped in her tracks when she saw Lincoln. He was staring at the ground with wide eyes as his legs dangled over side of the bed. Clearly distraught.

"Lincoln?" she asked timidly.

He sighed. "I'm sorry I let it go on-"

" _Don't_ apologize," Skye snarled. "Don't put this on you. Do not even think of doing that. I'm not going to put it on myself and you aren't going to put it on you."

"Skye," he said, his voice husky and low. "I can't control it. I couldn't stop."

"Neither could I. That doesn't make this our fault," she said. Skye knelt down before him. "If we can't stop and we do sleep together it will be a shame," she scoffed, more tears piling through her eyes. "Ok, understatement of the year. It will be despicable and loathsome." He winced, shying away. She brought him back with the touch of her hand, hoping it was the right thing to do. "But not because of you and not because of me. Not because either of us was _violated_ by one another, but because it could have been something so much more beautiful."

Her voice cracked and she tried to make him understand. She knew that no matter what she said, words could only mean so much. Lincoln could always feel guilt if they ended up not being able to stop themselves.

"Because we're being watched, and coerced. So it isn't fair and it's really messed up that this could happen. That perversion is pushing us on instead of feelings."

Skye picked herself up, anger bubbling to the surface. She found where she thought a camera would be. " _You_ pushing us! We have some evil, cocky asshole ruining us and raping us!" Skye screamed. Panting and heaving, she sat down on the bed. "We've been violated by him in worse ways," she whispered angrily to herself. "Being with you probably _would_ be a relief."

His breath hit her as he breathed heavily. It was warm and welcoming, and she wanted to fall into it. She wanted to bask in that summer breeze.

But she couldn't.

"But we can't," she said decidedly. "Or at least shouldn't. Maybe we will, but distractions have been working for us so far. So… let's distract. Let's explore. Maybe there's a way out of here."

They both looked around. Other than the gelatin ceiling, there didn't seem to be an exit. Hell, the only thing in the room was a bed.

"Ok… maybe we'll stick to distractions."

"What are we going to distract ourselves with?" Lincoln asked. "Other than the obvious…" he added under his breath.

"Well, I don't think Kane's in on this alone."

"What?"

"He was pretty solitary before, right? He had his guards and buyers, but he was rich and greedy. Didn't want a partner, didn't need one. He liked being the boss."

"Yeah…"

"Then he was working for an alien… So the dude fell pretty hard when we messed things up for him, but now he's just back all of a sudden? Where'd he get the resources?"

Lincoln blinked at her, not following her logic as well as she'd really prefer. It could have been due to the whiplash of the conversation.

"Maybe… someone who wanted to help him?"

"Right. But how is he getting them to help him?" Skye asked, pointedly trying to gear him in the right direction.

Lincoln's eyes lit up. "By showing off."

Skye nodded eagerly. "That's why so much is being thrown at us. This is his big show."

"So Kane thinks the best kind of show is people sleeping together…?"

"Yeah that is weird," Skye agreed quickly. "But this isn't exactly like the fights. It's much more… diabolical?"

"It's more of a planned demonstration than just dog fights and betting."

"Right. So maybe instead of just getting people to buy his product, he's trying to get some big wigs to invest."

Lincoln nodded, eventually ending it with a confused shrug. "How does knowing this help us?"

"I don't know," Skye answered honestly. "But I know what our next distraction can be."

"Yeah? What?"

"Figuring out what that is."

Lincoln's eyes followed Skye's hand as she pointed to the wall. Just a few moments earlier a large timer had appeared, counting down from what appeared to be twenty-five minutes.

"What does that mean?" Lincoln asked, curiously looking at the clock.

Skye shook her head slowly. "I have no idea."


	15. Strain at the Leash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team must face Kane's estranged challenges in order to get Skye and Lincoln back.

They were all on the ground of wherever they had landed - a rather stark room- when a door opened before them. It was a rather normal door, wood it appeared, not too big, (would Lockjaw even fit through there?) but the contents of its insides were pitch black.

"The object is to get to the other side of the arena before the allotted time runs out." CAMI stated, her voice having been amplified. Their cuffs emitted the soft glow that represented their activity. "All powers now restored for equal levels of play."

Everyone observed their wrists. Not only had the powers been restored, but each cuff now had a stopwatch type timer counting down from what appeared to be twenty-five minutes.

"Fantastic!" exclaimed Hunter with a happy chirp as he took in the power advantage. "…except, my powers don't do a thing anyways." He threw his hands up in annoyance.

"Your powers are defensive," said May. "Stay by Priya and keep hers _off._ They're only going to distract us."

He nodded. That was rather undeniable. "Pretty in Pink, come stay by Uncle Lance for a bit."

"Okie dokie!" Priya said, happily skipping over to him. Bobbi leaned towards Lance's face.

"What's her power?" she asked.

Hunter smirked and grabbed Priya by the arm, initiating the chain reaction that was fairly predictable. Everyone in the room sighed in relief, slumped their shoulders, or had some other indication that her ability had been removed from the air.

"Whoa," Bobbi breathed. "So _she's-"_

"Why you suddenly felt like a hormonal teenager? Yeah, pretty much."

"Hey," said Mack suddenly. He set down the man that he'd been towing around with care to avoid his own horns. "Think he's waking up."

"Good," admonished Coulson. "Your hands should definitely be free for this."

Joey held his head as he sat up from the ground. "W-what's going on?"

"This place is putting us through another test," explained Hunter. "Sorry mate, looks like you're gonna have to help us with it if you want to have a better chance of making it through."

He winced, as though taking in the information pained him. "Will we have to kill anyone?" he asked.

"Probably," said Ward with a shrug.

Bobbi stepped forward immediately. _"Not_ if we have anything to say about it." She held out a hand. "We're in this together."

He looked up at her warily, but accepted the help.

"Alright then!" Hunter exclaimed. "Shall we walk through the valley of the shadow of death?"

"Charming, Hunter…" Jemma sighed.

"He's right," Coulson said. "Getting this over with is the only way we're going to get Skye and Lincoln back and we don't have much time."

May felt an eagerness rush through her as Lockjaw barked, perhaps getting himself hyped for any challenges ahead. He moved forward, May just behind, to lead the charge into the darkness.

Walking through the door did nothing to help with the pitch black, as somehow May hoped it would. She thought it had been perhaps a veil on the door, but they truly had no idea what they were walking into.

"Uh, Ward?" asked Coulson. "Can you brighten the place up?"

"Wait!" exclaimed Fitz, who clutched Jemma's hand as long as he was able to. "Bobbi should do it. We have no idea what's flammable in here. Do you have enough color?"

"What?" questioned Mack.

"Her power works in a strange way," said Fitz, as though it were an actual explanation.

"Go on, Bob," encouraged Hunter with a light brush to her hand.

Soon enough there was a multicolored sphere of light before them, held floating between Bobbi's hands. They all huddled together to get closer to it, and observe what they could around them.

One thing was easily notable by all the extra light was that room was covered in mirrors. In every direction, different angled mirrors spouted off the walls to create a near crystal looking room. There were spikes sporting through some of them.

But this arena was long, and the mirrors only reflected the light in this first area. They were still in the dark about what lie ahead of them or how long it would take.

Bobbi took the lead, everyone making a rough semi-circle around her light as they advanced. Strange noises gurgled in echoes that no one could place in their minds as they walked, the flickering light on the mirrors only putting them on edge.

"Is it just me, or do the walls seem to be closing in on us?" asked Coulson.

"It definitely seems to be concaving at some sort of angle," Fitz agreed, the mirrors and spikes being a quite a closer proximity now.

_Kill._

Leo turned his head to the sudden voice and jumped when his own reflection startled him. The angles in the mirror had him looking at ten different pieces of himself.

"Fitz?" May called out, having read his fear in her mind. "You ok?"

"Did anyone else hear that?" he asked quietly.

"Hear what?"

_Burn hurt, burn!_

Ward tensed at the sound. "That?" he guessed.

"Uh, what?" asked Leo.

"That voice."

Fitz shrugged. "I didn't hear it that time."

 _"_ _Guys,"_ Bobbi said, her voice strained. "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this…"

"We'll keep moving," said Coulson, galvanizing the group into stepping forward once again.

_Strangle, kill… kill!_

"Wait," said Coulson, causing Bobbi to stare at him with desperate disbelief. "I heard something too…"

"This place is messing with your heads, let's get passed it," Melinda tried.

"What if there's something there, though?" asked Joey.

Hunter felt Priya cling to his arm. She buried her head in the crevice of his elbow. "Make them stop," she pleaded in a whisper. He picked his head up curiously.

"Mack, can you just check it out?" asked Hunter.

"Why do I gotta be the one?"

He gestured to the girl clutching him. "I'm a bit busy."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said, tentatively moving towards the reflected wall.

"Please hurry," Bobbi whispered.

Mack could tell something was definitely going on, but he couldn't be sure what. He squinted at the lit wall, the small sharp objects protruding from it. He held up a hand to touch the surface.

_DEATH!_

The light went out.

There was a horrible screeching noise near the very place Mack was standing, but no one could see.

"Bobbi, we need eyes!" shouted Coulson.

"I can't!"

But with a great woosh, a new light lit the area, One that was warm and red, emitting from Ward's palm.

"Not a problem," said Ward. "I'll pick up the slack."

"Mack!" exclaimed Fitz, drawing their attention back to the mechanic. His head was dangerously close to a spike, one that had not been that far out before.

"Did that thing just…" started Joey.

"I think it did," added Coulson.

Jemma yelped as a spike flew out from behind her, narrowly missing her head. Then another near Ward, swaying the fire's light. They were popping out everywhere with that same nails on a chalkboard noise every time.

Lockjaw barked.

"Move, move!" screamed May.

_Kill, death, torture, pain, murder, murderers, all, kill, kill, burn, strangle, freeze, DEATH DEATH DEATH_

Everyone could hear the whispers now. The orders. They rang through their heads as the group raced to get through the sharp mirrors. It was especially hard with Ward's small light as their only guide, flickering in and out with the wind from his running.

Jemma grabbed Fitz and whoever else was close to her – Mack, it turned out- used her new gift to pop them forward.

They were out of the mirrors, their friends still about a hundred feet behind. They could tell by the light, but it was not easy to see what was around them. Fitz could hear a small rumble though.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

"Pretty sure we all heard those creepy whispers," said Mack.

"No… something else."

He couldn't explain that there was some sort of rumbling though, not when their attentions diverted as they heard a shout.

"Coulson?" Jemma asked in a panic.

The other group kept moving towards them. Simmons briefly thought to use her powers to go get them, but they were close enough and she didn't have much control… she could take them in the opposite direction at this point.

As they caught up to Fitz, Jemma and Mack the three saw that May and Bobbi were carefully holding up Coulson, helping him to move.

"What happened?" asked Jemma while they set him down.

"One of those pointy things got him," Hunter told her as she began to examine the director's leg.

"It's just a graze," Coulson explained. He heaved himself up on his own, but at the small amount of trouble accepted Melinda's help to get to his feet. He then stayed afoot on his own accord, though.

"Check the time," said May. "We've only got nine minutes now."

"Whoa!" Jemma exclaimed, staring down at her cuff. "There is no possible way that took so long."

"Whatever that was messed with our heads," said Fitz. "Clearly it altered our perception."

"Ok, does anyone else hear that?" asked Joey.

"I hear it!" Priya chirped. "That sort of soft… _grrrr_ sound?"

"Uh, yeah," Joey answered uncertainly. "Sort of."

"That's not the only noise," Bobbi noted, tilting her head to listen. "Is that…?"

"It's water," Ward affirmed, walking just to the side.

In the light everyone could see the small stream and the boat that was weighed at the edge of it. Just a small wooden one with paddles. Though not a quite a canoe it did not have a sail either. It was impossible to see how far the river went in this dim lighting.

"So who wants to go first?" Ward said.

"I'm not getting on that thing," Hunter stated incredulously.

"There may be nowhere else to go, and we're running out of time," Coulson admitted. "Ward, can you take a look around?"

The man nodded, showing his flame in the near vicinity. The wall of water was long, and on the other sides of it were just basic wall or going back towards the mirrors that would now be impossible to get through, covered in long spikes. Ward jerked to a stop as his fire illuminated something they hadn't noticed before.

"Huh," he commented.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense. The rumbling did sound like a growl," Fitz said, his voice now turned to a whisper.

He wouldn't want to wake the large, sleeping cat. Wild cat. Jaguar cat, to be exact.

"We need to move," Coulson whispered.

"There's nowhere _to_ move," Hunter hissed. "That boat is tiny."

"We could make two trips," suggested Joey.

"I doubt we'd be able to move upstream in that current, it looks rather strong," explained Jemma.

"Besides, no one would want to stay up here with that thing," Bobbi said, gesturing to the cat.

Ward heightened his flame. "We can get rid of that easily enough."

"We're not _burning_ the cat alive," stressed Bobbi.

"Of course. Saving every single _human_ life isn't enough for you bleeding hearts. You're all PETA now, too?"

Fitz scoffed. "Of course not. That's a horrible organization."

Hunter's eyes lit up. "Ah. You and Jemma watched that documentary on the Amazon, I see."

"Yeah it was fantastic! I-"

"Will discuss it later," Coulson butt in, finishing his sentence. Leo hastily nodded.

Just as it seemed to be on cue for someone to ask what to do, the giant inhuman dog they had with the decided for the group. He stepped into the water carefully, having to stand strong against the current. He put his head near the edge.

"Some of us can go on Lockjaw," May translated for him.

"Is that really going to work?" Simmons asked skeptically.

Lockjaw ruffed a low bark in annoyance. May could tell he knew he could handle it.

Unfortunately, the small sound from the hound was enough to rouse the sleeping feline.

"I think we should try it!" Priya said after seeing the cat, pulling Hunter onto the dog hastily. Bobbi followed. The Jaguar lifted itself up lazily. Once it saw the people, the potential meals, the cat became much more frigid in stance.

May and Fitz helped Coulson onto the boat. Once he was squared away she went to hop on Lockjaw as the cat charged at her. It leapt, but was stricken in the chest by a large fireball that knocked the jungle animal off to the side.

Ward lowered his arm and got next to Fitzsimmons, Joey and Coulson in the boat. It was definitely snug; any more people and the thing probably wouldn't move.

The cat moved forward once again and Bobbi was the one to hit it this time, after having collected enough color to convert to energy.

As the feline once again recovered, Ward used a leg to kick out to the side and push off the edge while Lockjaw began moving steadily forward. The Jaguar pawed uselessly over the edge, not wanting to actually step foot in the water, and eventually slumped back in defeat.

"And here we go," said Hunter, staring ahead as they began to move.

The boat overtook the dog easily, going with the current as Lockjaw attempted to move step by step.

Soon enough the water began to deepen, and the poor Inhuman could no longer keep his paws on the ground. All four people could tell when the massive dog began to swim, as it rocked their grip on him and splashed water around them.

May patted his side tenderly. "You can do it," she whispered, before turning backwards. "Hunter, you and Priya get closer to the head," she said, scooting herself back so that Priya could rest just on the nape of his neck. That was the place highest in the water. Priya was the smallest and youngest along with being a civilian, and May wanted to keep her as far out of the danger as possible.

With Lockjaw now swimming, he was able to keep up pace with the boat easily.

Jemma gasped. "I think I see the end!"

"How do you know it's the end and not just another obstacle?" Bobbi nearly hollered from the back of the dog.

"Because it's a wall. CAMI said we just had to get to the other end of the room, and it corresponds in a directional sense as well."

"Has this seriously been just one room?" Hunter asked with disbelief. He sighed. "At least it's over."

"I wouldn't call it over just yet," Joey said. "What's that?"

Ahead of them the river branched out into two separate directions. One way seemed to lead directly to the edge of the room, to the finish line. The other…

"Is that a whirlpool?" asked Coulson. "How cliché."

May was too busy analyzing to take in the ridiculous comment. "We're both heading straight for it. The current is taking us there!"

Lockjaw immediately began paddling in the other direction as the others finally put extra use to their oars, but it wasn't working.

"Would anyone's power be of help?" Fitz asked desperately. They all looked at each other with blank expressions, as it didn't really seem so.

The branch in water was mere feet away from them, both the boat and the dog heading for the path that ended in a whirlpool, when Lockjaw pushed himself off the wall with his two right paws.

It jerked his passengers sideways but was enough to bump the boat at the last moment, leaving it to continue floating in the rather pleasant waters until finally hitting upon the shore. Simmons hastily moved out of the boat and onto the land, staring back at the others.

Lockjaw and them were not so lucky. They'd fallen right into the whirlpool, shouting in shock and fear as they spun in circles. At one point the dog managed to find enough purchase on the ground to bolt himself upright, and the others could do nothing but cling to him as the current brutally pulled at them.

Priya had begun coughing as the water hit her full force over and over, and Simmons could see there wasn't much time left for them and no foreseeable way out. Without help, at least.

Jemma glanced at her watch. _Two minutes._

"I have to help them," she whispered to Fitz.

He glanced over the scene in fear, but nodded. He gave her a peck on the cheek, a squeeze of her hand and a warming smile. With that in mind, she _vwarped_ away.

Her aim had been fair, but when going into the mess of a dog trying to hold people withstanding a whirlpool everything was rather difficult. She'd landed in the water just next to them.

Bobbi reached out a hand first and missed her by just an inch, leaving Jemma to get farther and farther away with every loop of the water she made. Soon she lost track of where up was, and without a good breath was unexpectedly beneath the surface.

It was much quieter under there. Far more pleasant, in fact. But she couldn't focus on that; she had to find her friends. She had to find up. If things got bad enough she could just pop herself back to the edge (hopefully, considering the not knowing where _up_ was bit), but then her friends would be dead. She had to try.

Jemma felt a hand on her wrist then and she was hauled from the water with a gasping breath by Hunter. Hunter, who was attached to Priya who was holding May on Lockjaw.

"Everyone get a hand on me!" Simmons immediately ordered the best she could as she lacked air.

They pulled her onto Lockjaw where Bobbi too joined in. Once Simmons knew she was touching them all, she moved them.

They plopped in a wet bundle on the shore.

Fitz ran over to Jemma, holding up her face and saying her name over and over as she tried to catch her breath.

"I'm ok," she heaved. He hugged her and she couldn't help but shiver. "What's the time?" she gasped.

"Twenty seconds," said Coulson with a smile. "And the watches have stopped counting down.

Before much more relief could be brought to the situation CAMI appeared.

"Congratulations. Unprecedented victory by all has been achieved," she announced. As she finished up her sentence the wall behind her began to split. It could have been quite the sight, but was quite honestly becoming the norm. "Please, move forward to collect your reward."

The group met each other with concerned stares. Yes, they had just gone through quite the scuffle, but it all seemed a bit too… simple?

"You mean Lincoln and Skye? That's our reward?" asked Coulson.

The AI took a moment to respond, which was odd. But after the beat came a resounding, "yes."

The director nodded to himself and pointed a hand forward, gesturing the team to move. So with his go ahead, they went to see just how the inhumans were faring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long hiatus friends! This story is actually nearly done, just a few chapters left.


	16. Weasel Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team get to see Skye and Lincoln, and are joined by Kane and some visitors.

Skye had surmised the ticking time bomb of a clock had to do with whatever sort of obstacle course the others were facing. Unfortunately, she had arrived at that conclusion rather quickly, so it hadn't been much of a distraction.

She'd kissed Lincoln a couple times to stave off the feelings, but it only did so much. They were on opposite walls of the room, the proximity gap not making much of a difference in such a small area. They were going to be around each other whether they liked it or not.

Skye decidedly did not like it. She was sweaty and miserable from Priya's powers on top of those drugs that had been plaguing her.

"Two minutes."

"What?" Skye snapped in confusion.

Lincoln gestured his head to the clock. "Only two minutes now."

Skye wondered what would happen when it finally would tick to zero. Two minutes until her team came down? Until they were let go? Until some other creative horror was drudged up into their path?

120 seconds seemed quite closer to an hour in her current predicament, but eventually the timer hit zero, a shrill buzzer following in its wake. After that… a whole lot of nothing.

"What's happening?" Skye finally had the gall to ask.

"I don't know…" Lincoln muttered. "But Skye, what if they leave us in here for days?"

Skye suddenly tried to count her heartbeats, wondering if it was going fast enough to damage herself, like have a heart attack or something. She was sure it had never been at such a rapid speed.

"What?" she quietly asked of the random query.

"We were locked up for months. We need to discuss if we can't handle staving it off anymore."

Skye had been so caught up in her own ill-being – not to mention actively trying to avoid seeing his face- that she hadn't noticed how unkempt Lincoln was as well. Sweaty, red cheeks. Hair all mussed up. Panting. Staring at her like she was the only thing in the world and she felt like she was gobbling him up with her own eyes because honestly they were the only things that mattered and –

"Oh screw it," Skye said, hastily disposing of her top over her head as she beelined for Lincoln. He briskly moved forward in the same motion, swiftly catching her as she hopped into his arms like they'd done it a million times before. They collapsed onto the bed as they nearly devoured one another in their excitement and vigor.

Giving in, giving up… Skye didn't really care what the label was. She was doing whatever the quote on quote bad thing was, and as many times when she'd done bad things, she was going to damn well enjoy it while it went on and save the consequences for later.

Guilt be damned. Kane be damned. Everyone could just go jump off a flipping bridge because she was going to let Lincoln do whatever the hell he wanted to Skye as that's what she wanted herself and –

"Skye?"

Her mind blanked.

Poofed. Gone.

Just for a moment, until reality swung back like a boomerang and hit her square in the face.

"No," she actually whispered, all too aware and lucid even through the lusty haze. Because…

Having your dad walk in on you will do that to a person. (She'd heard. She gets it now)

"Is that Coulson…" she muttered to Lincoln, too mortified to check for herself even though she knew it to be true. This was a dream. A horrible dream where they were all kidnapped and she was straddling a semi-naked Lincoln in her own semi-naked state and Coulson popped in the door.

"It's everyone, actually."

Skye sort off plopped herself down onto Lincoln's chest, maybe letting out a tiny, muffled scream of frustration. Her initial thought had been to hide the sight of her bra, but now that she was face down thinking about it she needed to get up to get to her shirt anyhow, so they'd see the undergarment.

"Tell them to look the other way while I get dressed," she hissed.

"Don't think we need to," said Lincoln. "They're sort of preoccupied."

Skye scowled, turning her head to the side to look at the group of people and her jaw dropped faster than a lead weight.

A wall behind them had opened (presumably how they'd gotten inside) but Hunter had Bobbi pinned against the perpendicular wall, hand through her hair as he kissed her roughly. Then there was the giant bulldog next to a confused to hell May which was hella confusing to look at in the first place. Coulson had first been looking at Skye in her predicament, but now stood next to May as she pulled at her own hair and Skye wasn't sure if he wanted to help her or feel her up. Mack was trying to push people apart, Ward was there watching the whole scene with an uncomfortable look on his face and a couple choice glances to Skye. Can't leave out the new kid of course, poor Joey glancing around like a lost puppy just waiting for anyone to take him home (his eyes lingering on the boys, she noted.) Priya, sheepishly hiding in the corner. And most absurd…

Fitzsimmons kissing!

Ok, it might have been the tamest sight, but it was still super shocking to Skye.

She dismounted Lincoln to pick up her shirt from next to the bed and threw it on.

"What's going on? How did you all get here!" Skye shouted, but no one seemed to give her a second glance.

Luckily, CAMI showed up to explain. "Aphrodite's powers are affecting them more harshly. Walking into the room with Static and Quake in such positions triggered responses."

"Ah," Skye said. She waved her hands wildly. "Well, we're done now! You can stop."

"Quake is correct. There is a matter to attend to."

"What?" Jemma said, momentarily finding relief of Fitz's mouth. They managed to pull away from each other, but kept their hands interlocked.

Aw.

"The contestants were not all meant to emerge with their lives. Using teamwork this was accomplished. It must be remedied."

"What the hell does that mean?" Skye asked heatedly.

"The person or people who dispose of a minimum of one person in this room will be rewarded."

They all turned to one another in disbelief, mostly, and Skye couldn't help but think there was fear on her friend's faces. Fear that they'd be next… or that they'd be coerced into doing it themselves.

Lockjaw took a defensive stance next to May, but Coulson stepped up. He took a deep breath and stood up straight. "Not one member of this team, not one person, will harm another-"

BOOM.

Skye heard the same ringing a gunshot would cause in her mind, but she knew none of them had weapons. Her head turned slowly towards the sound, where the sight before her had bile rising in her throat.

"No!" Jemma cried, rushing forward to Joey as he fell to the ground. Though it was no longer visible, Skye had already seen the hole that had gone straight through his chest.

And despite Jemma frantically looking him over, there was no way that man was alive.

Ward lowered his hand, freshly smoking from shooting some kind of fireball.

"You killed him!" Simmons snarled as Mack knelt beside her, taking a glance at Joey's body.

"If it wasn't him, I'm guessing the odd man out was going to be me," Ward said, his body language tense. There was no way he wasn't aware that every person present felt copious amounts of rage for him, and he was taking the necessary precautions.

"We weren't going to kill anyone!" Fitz hollered desperately. "Not if it could be avoided."

"It can't be avoided, Fitz!" Ward countered with a sanctimonious tone. "You deranged people just can't seem to grasp that concept until you're broken inside anyway."

Skye couldn't help but feel the comment was directed at her. She wanted to counter it, to say that there was always a way. But then again, maybe he was right. Maybe she really was slow on the uptake. Maybe there wasn't a way around violence here.

If that was true, her main regret was not realizing it sooner, so she could have killed Ward before he'd had the chance to hurt anyone.

Her fist balled up as anger took over and she moved forward towards him.

"Hold on now, girly."

Skye did as the new voice had ordered, but not by her own warrant.

"Damn it, Thrash!" she screeched in frustration as her whole team were affected, turned still as statues. Ward, in front of her, moved his hands in puzzled curiosity, as he was the only one left with mobility.

Skye was able to turn her eyes upwards when she glanced something in her peripherals. A large circle was being indented into the ceiling, until finally a see-through tube shot down. It landed on Priya.

The poor girl looked terrified as her eyes began to tear up, unable to move or understand what was going on around her.

"Hunter, Skye!" she shouted. But before they could so much as comfort her she was shot away. Taken upwards by the tube and out of sight.

"Priya!" Skye yelled.

A slow clapping sound preempted Kane actually walking into the room, but the noise had not given them the forewarning of all the people that would be following in his wake.

"Now that she's out of the way, I can give my proper congratulations. You sir," Kane said jovially as he marched his ass in towards Ward, "are immune from this little get together."

Ward cocked his head, calculating and waiting for more information. "Is that so?"

"Yes," Kane vibrantly stated, his head moving up and down. "You killed someone! Took long enough, mind you, but you basically, ehem, won my test game."

Ward wasn't too impressed by the look on his face. Skye watched his hand twitch, as he debated whether or not to fry his captor that was now congratulating him.

"What's this prize?"

"Instead of a being a run of the mill specimen, I want to offer you a job. Details to follow, boring business of course… but now I'd like you to go relax in one of our private suites while you decide, and while this business concludes," Kane said, gesturing to all the frozen agents and well dressed crowd that had followed him in.

"Oh, truly?" Skye heard an older woman from the crowd. She advanced on Ward, taking the liberty to caress his shoulders as she circled him. "I like him though…"

Ward's eyes followed the woman, but his expression remained blank. He turned to Kane. "You know, I'm not that happy I was put in this hellish labyrinth."

"And I was not pleased that you took my Inhumans. So, here we are."

"Yes, here we are," agreed Ward. "I know what this is, I was on the other end of it a few months ago. And as… riveting as a body guard job sounds, I think we can come up with something better."

"Really?" Kane deadpanned doubtfully.

"Until you brought me here, I was still nearly the head of Hydra. I'd be willing to forgive all of this… after all, you gave me this firepower I'm liking." He lit up his hand, twirling it in explanation. "I think we could partner to become something greater."

Kane stroked his chin. "Intriguing. Yes, quite possible. I have always enjoyed Hydra's tactics. I will have someone take you upstairs, we can discuss –"

"Actually, I'd prefer to stay here. Watch this business unfold so I can get a handle on it."

Kane's mouth pressed into a thin line, but he nodded. "Fine. Now, if you'll all come this way we can get a closer look at who you've been observing during this beta."

The woman finally unlatched herself from Ward to move with the rest of the group. Skye realized as she approached that she recognized the lady. Her hair was half blue half purple now, but before it had been a plethora of colors. She was there the time Skye had gone through a similar situation. She was one of the "buyers" in Kane's old fights.

"As you've all been able to see for yourself while watching these entertaining escapades, the manufactured powers seem to be just as capable as the others."

Hair Dye crossed her arms. "One might say more capable."

Kane scowled. "Do you think, Violet? They seemed fairly equal in fights…"

"Darling, four of the naturally gifted are dead while all the surgically implanted specials remain. That's statistics."

"I'm not entirely sure that was due to their powers-"

"Either way," said a man, stepping forward, "four of them are dead. In one night! From one show. How is that a good investment?"

"Neil is right," Violet agreed. "The gifteds should not be put in such jeopardy. If you plan to mass-produce these, the purebreds will make up less than one percent of your livestock."

Kane shook his head. "We- I shall control the amount of specials that are made. We could keep them exclusive by not making too many."

"But what would be the point? If you can, make many!" said Neil. "Sell them as soldiers. I know your connections to Daniel Whitehall have given you the ability to brainwash."

"You could even keep your… fights on the side, this obstacle course," she said distastefully, even waving the thought off as she did. "But dear, you have such a valuable product. Fetish brothels these days could give you ten times the profit without damaging your merchandise!"

"Not to mention how much one night with a purebred would go for in a sea of manufactured gifteds," Neil commented. "I would certainly invest in it then."

"While we're on the matter," Violet started. "Your little… what did you call her? Aphrodite would be quite the goldmine. No brainwashing or breaking necessary for your livestock and it would give the customers an added kick to spend a little surplus."

"Aphrodite's gift has no antidote, that's why I had to send her away before you entered," Kane said. His voice held a tone that he was happy to finally be the one informing the others for once in the situation. Clearly the man didn't appreciate getting preached at.

"I'm sure you could manufacture one! By god, you gave someone the power to convert colors to raw power," she said. Setting her eyes on Bobbi, Violet twirled a finger through her hair until it mixed with her own. "I would buy that."

"I have no plans to operate publically yet," Kane muttered.

"I have no doubts. Too many complications, and we wouldn't want to release something that could be done later at a higher price of course."

"You shouldn't do any of this!" Fitz shrieked out of the blue. "Even if you don't care for individuals' wellbeing, don't you understand what would happen if you released multiple armies of gifteds on the world?"

Violet pointed to him, but her eyes remained on Kane. "That one is right. For the soldiers, start with the lower level powers only. The more someone wants to win, the more they'll pay for the better."

Fitz scoffed. "That's not what I-"

"My dear Tobias, is there any way to shut them up? They've always been relatively quiet in the past…"

Kane glanced at Thrash. "This way ensures our safety, though in the future I could implement a muzzle, as well." He shot Fitz a glare at the horrific word.

Violet smiled. "Fantastic, now to continue-"

"Yes, so many opportunities," Kane said. "I will consider all of them. Though, by the amounts you are speaking of I will need to begin with a hardy sum…"

"Honey, if you play it my way, I am so sure we will make bank that I'll hand you a blank check. You know I'm good for it."

Kane chuckled lightly under his breath, staring into Violet's eyes. She'd gotten incredibly close, a sneer on her lips.

He backed up in a jerk, leaving Violet reeling as he addressed the entire group. "Brilliant! As a thank you and a gift of courtesy, I encourage each of you to pick out one manufactured gifted of your choice from this group."

"Manufactured?" said Violet, a pout on her lips. The others seemed eager at this offer, but she gave an air of disappointment. "If I can't have Mr. Ward over there, my eyes are only set on the electric man."

Kane chuckled softly. "You know what a soft spot I have for you, Violet." He placed a hand on her hip. First Skye rather obviously thought, yuck! But he merely dipped a few fingers into her pocket, then brought them up, rubbing two fingers together with his thumb to indicate cash. "And your wallet. If you promise a large investment, you can have Static."

No, Skye thought. Lincoln, her friends… they were all going to be taken away from her!

Despite everyone being able to speak, no one knew what to say. They all remained quiet as the vultures came to pick their pray, save for Lockjaw's growling. And though quiet, Skye could hear the sheer satisfaction on Kane's face as his partygoers went to pick out their take-home treats.


	17. Mad as a March Hare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye deals with the aftermath of her friends being taken away, and Kane pays her a visit.

Skye's heart rammed up against her chest in beats that could have rivaled the speed of a hummingbird's wings. Knots that began in her stomach ran up her throat to constrict and choke her, while the tears dewing in her eyes allowed Skye to feel the rush of water to her face and convince her she was truly drowning.

Her friends couldn't leave. Not just like that! She was the only one safe, or as safe as being left with Kane could possibly imply.

That woman had claimed Lincoln like a pup at the pound, gesturing for a man in a suit to drag him away from Skye. The man called Neil observed and soon forced away Fitz. Mack, Bobbi, Coulson…. One after the other they were being called for and whisked away.

Skye screamed but no one paid her mind. No one that was in a position to stop these matters. Some of her friends whispered false assurances as they were dragged limply away.

What were those people going to do with them? Kane had a business to run… These people were investors. Her friends were gifts, but did they have a place where they were going?

Skye could not imagine the horrors these people could inflict upon them.

Except, all she could do was imagine. Because it happened. They were gone, and Skye was left to wonder their fates.

Once her friends were taken away she was given a cell. As flamboyant as Kane had been, showcasing his money and flashing expensive technologies as often as he could, he did not spare any such luxury for Skye's quarters.

She guessed it was to remind her where she belonged.

Though she would sometimes think, how could she not be reminded of such things? After what she'd been through, how could being owned and worth less than rich, sadistic big wigs with money ever so much as leave her mind for a second?

But then she'd feel anger creep up her chest until it hit her face and she'd scowl, knowing they had violated her rights and that she was someone. She'd act out in her cell, scream and become mad.

Only to know no one was listening. No one was listening because she was controlled, and they just didn't have to.

It was back and forth in her solitude as though the hormones she'd been dosed with were hitting her ten times as hard. She'd make vows refusing to shed tears, only to be sobbing minutes later. Though she'd merely feel the slightest bit of relief when doing so.

It hadn't been very long since her friends had been stolen – perhaps just shy of a week- that Kane came to visit her.

He was announced by the constricting of her body as it went frigid, which of course was not his doing at all but that of Thrash. Skye barely glimpsed the woman though, Kane waving his hand as he stepped through the door of Skye's cell and indicating the large southerner to leave them.

She'd been doing nothing at the time. Staring and contemplating, perhaps imagining a better future or fantasy of how she could get out of this.

"Do you know why you're my favorite, Quake?" Kane began, not so much as bothering with a greeting.

Skye didn't have the ability to move, but she had been left with her voice. The fact that she was able to make the choice not to use it had been a small victory of itself.

He chuckled, moving forward towards her until she was faced with his stomach, staring at the neatly pressed suit and etching out his buttons with her eyes. She might have been unnerved that she could not glance up to see his face, track his volatile mind's thoughts, but not much could make her more on edge than she already was.

"There are so many reasons," he continued. He cupped her cheeks and Skye closed her eyes as he lifted her head. "Ah, come on girl. Look at me. I want to show you something."

Skye pressed her eyelids shut tighter momentarily out of pure defiance, but curiosity got the better of her. And, though she might have been put off from admitting it, fear of the unknown as well.

She opened her eyes, but her hatred could not rise any higher even when looking upon the man. His silver hair held the sheen of one kept well groomed while Skye had been left to rot, already able to smell herself getting dirty.

Yes, it was the prim and proper man in all his sneering glory, but she could not pick out a difference. She could not find what he wanted to show her.

After scanning his smiling face for what seemed to be hours, she gave in. "What," she deadpanned, barely inclining her voice to question.

He did not take it like one. He held himself higher over her head, pulling her cheeks so she felt strain in her neck, and bore his gaze downward. He chuckled. "Well, I do suppose it's more of what you're showing me than what I'm showing you."

"What?" she spat in frustration.

"This," he said gently, rubbing over her eyes with his thumbs as though wiping away a child's tears. "There's no fire left in those eyes. You're… empty now."

Skye blinked, moving her gaze as far down as she could.

She was tired. Sick of screaming mood swings and frustration grating her bones. But that didn't mean she was void of emotion… right?

He let go of her face. "Now of course there were so, so many others who had their flames diminished, sparks exterminated… it was just a little more difficult with you. You had friends. From the start even."

Lincoln, and probably Raina. Skye was sure she'd have fallen so much faster if not for them aiding her in fighting pits. If not for Lincoln grounding her when they were in that alien zoo.

"So I took them, of course." He cocked his head, apparently studying her reaction. "I found them, took them, and made them worth something. Just like you're worth something," he said, brushing hair behind her ear on the last word. "And now you're all alone… with me."

Skye knew that. Skye was so aware of that. Whether she had been angry or sad or in denial the past few days, that was a fact. And that thought wormed its way into her head any disgusting chance it had.

"But the reason you're my favorite pet isn't just how far I am able to watch you fall, it's why I enjoy watching you fall."

Skye grunted with the sudden shove to her chest. The strange sensation of wanting to shoot her hands out with no mobility permitted to her caused a drop in her stomach. She flopped onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Daniel Whitehall did not just teach me his techniques," Kane drawled. "I lived them."

Skye could only truly see the ceiling from her vantage, but she felt the man's cold fingertips pull on her arms.

"He wasn't having luck finding gifteds, you know," he continued as he pulled Skye sideways.

"What are you doing?"

He didn't answer. "So he of course had to experiment."

He pulled her legs onto the bed.

"What-"

"Discovery requires experimentation," he quoted, flailing Skye's arm as though it were attached to the person saying the words. Kane scoffed. "Like I hadn't been hearing that my whole life."

"He tried to give you powers," Skye said, putting the pieces together.

"Yes… yes! And it hurt, you know?"

She swallowed. "It didn't work?"

He was in the middle of placing her hands gently at her sides like a freshly laid out corpse when he paused. "Oh, I wouldn't say that…" He patted the tops of her hands as though tucking her into bed, pleased with his work. "It's just not something you want to go through so young…"

"You were a kid," Skye stated, staring at the ceiling and trying to focus on their dialogue, trying to ignore why he was laying her down and fluffing her up like a doll.

"I was everything," he said flatly. "My father did not age. He started when I was younger, through his lackeys… and after stealing your mother's abilities of course, he became obsessed. Then he found the diviner, and you. If only he knew I was building my own circus of gifteds, he would have had a heart attack long ago!"

Kane was chuckling to himself, but Skye was really only focused on one thing:

"Father?" she squeaked.

He appeared over her vision. "Yes. Pay attention. Anyhow, to sum things up, I caught wind that SHIELD killed my father and as much as I didn't really care for the way he treated me… that wasn't very nice, was it?"

"You want to kill me because SHIELD is responsible for your dad's death, and because… gifteds are the reason you suffered?"

Skye, at this point, had decided he'd been delicately laying her out so he could murder her. It seemed his style.

His hand coiled around her neck faster than any snake could have wrapped her up. "I don't want to kill you," he said sweetly, his face softening from a sneer to a look of pity in moments. He held her throat tighter. "I never want to kill you. I want you to resent every fiber of your being, Quake. I want you to know that you're in this situation because of where you were born, how you were born, and what you were born into. Just like me."

His eyes went milky and for a moment, Skye wasn't sure it mattered what he'd just said. He was choking the life out of her without even realizing it.

He released her eventually. Skye gasped and heaved. Still staring upward from her awkward laying position on the bed, she couldn't catch her breath.

"Your friend Static is here again," he said, the information filling Skye's eyes with tears immediately. With relief or fear? She wasn't sure.

"Where has he been?" she spat, anger boiling over passed any sense of reason.

"With Violet, you should remember. She wanted to bring him over to… well, you know how when one person has the female dog and the other has the male, so they put them together for a few nights until puppies show up? It's like that."

Skye should have known. He wasn't coming back to be her cellmate or even Kane's property, he was just back so they could finish taking the one thing they never succeeded in ripping away from them yet.

"Violet wants to help you through the process, nosey one she is. She'll actually be bringing her boy in as soon as I call her." Kane chuckled. "I'm honestly quite interested in what state he'll be in –"

Ok, so like, a few things happened at once in this instant.

Skye heard: a whoosh, crackle, and grunt.

She saw a flash.

She heard a thud.

As grateful as Skye was for Kane's sudden silence, she was still paralyzed and now had no idea what was going on.

"Hello?" she called out as her ears picked up thick footsteps.

Skye shut her eyes and wished to herself, Lincoln please be you.

"Hey, Skye."

Her eyes shot open at that voice. "You?"

"I thought I'd give this rescue thing a second shot," said Ward.

Skye was heaving buckets. Leftover fear from Kane's spiel unfortunately reached her voice as she addressed the Hydra agent. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

His head popped into her sights, staring down at her. "Getting you out." He grabbed her arms, hauling her up so she was no longer lying.

"Stop! Don't touch me!"

"Whoa there, spitfire," he said. "Just trying to help."

"I can't move," she growled. "Propping me up isn't going to get me out of here, and there's no way I trust you with my body!"

"Do you have a choice?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Skye opened her mouth, but every negative emotion that had been consistently rained down upon her did just that, and she was crushed under the weight of them.

"Lucky for you," Ward continued, "I already made one."

Skye frowned in puzzlement as Ward put a finger to his lips, pointing to the open door. She heard footsteps coming closer in a rushing march as Ward ducked behind the door.

Thrash burst through. "Sir?" she called, looking around briefly before finding him on the ground. "Sir!" She rushed downward, kneeling to inspect the unconscious man.

Thrash began to snarl, her head whipping up at Skye. "What did you do to him, twit?"

"I can't even move, thanks to you," she sneered back.

Thrash grabbed Skye's shirt and shook her. "Then what did happen to him?"

"Me."

Thrash turned just in time to get a fireball to the chest, meeting her assailant with wide eyes full of shock and toppling over.

Skye stared in disbelief at the hole in the woman's chest. Her appalled feeling didn't linger though, as it was replaced with getting sensation back in the rest of her body. She stood up quickly, examining the corpse.

"You're welcome," Ward said.

"You killed her," Skye hissed.

He scoffed. "You say that like she was your friend."

"Newsflash, dick, you don't have to be friends with someone to not want them dead." Skye flexed her now movable hands into fists, testing the mobility of her body. "How did you know that would work?"

"I didn't."

She crossed her arms. "So I could have just been frozen like that forever?"

"Do you want to keep having this conversation, or do you want to go find Sparkles?"

Lincoln? Ward was going to help her… get Lincoln?

He clearly read the shock from her face as he said, "Yeah. I owe both of you. Now come on."

He left the room quickly. Skye stepped forward to follow, her foot catching on a large object. She looked down.

Thrash wasn't the only corpse Ward was leaving behind, she realized. And despite her 'no kill' attitude, the only reason she wasn't jumping for joy at Kane's lifeless body was that she hadn't been the one to do it herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest this is mostly just necessary (and a bit repetitive really) but hopefully the next chapter is at least a tad better.
> 
> I decided I'm going to go into detail about what the other's have gone through once the people took them, so this story will be a bit longer... I have like the next four chapters written though! Still want to finish it up soon ;)
> 
> Thank you for the comments!


	18. Cat Got Your Tongue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward helps Skye to get Lincoln, who they find has not been in the best conditions.

"So what happened to being Kane's business partner?" asked Skye, putting air quotes around the phrase.

"Had to make him a better offer than being his bodyguard," Ward scoffed. The word betrayer crossed Skye's mind with malice, but she supposed in this case it was acceptable. "Besides, do you really think he'd ever let me completely off of this leash? I don't need him. With Hydra'a resources and these abilities I'm more powerful than he is now."

"Thanks to him," Skye muttered. "It's a total Frankenstein's monster thing and it's pretty messed up." She paused, almost apologizing for the rudeness (she still felt anger creeping under her skin.) Then she realized this was Ward, and she was angry with him 99% of the time his face in her vision just on precedent.

Ward chose not to respond to her sass, instead opening the door to the stairway and gesturing for her to go in. She rolled her eyes at the politeness, but went in ahead. She'd like to take point and be in charge in this instance.

"After we get up these stairs we're entering the public area – the area reachable to Kane's guests. Guards everywhere, so you're going to have to stay close and fake being restrained."

Skye halted, and turned on the spot.

"What?"

"I said fake it. C'mon Skye, won't you give me an inch?"

"Kane openly hated you for breaking Lincoln and me out, but now because you won his little game he trusts you to tote around prisoners?"

"You know he wouldn't let me touch his prized possession," said Ward. She couldn't help but glare at the wording. "But he did want to give off the illusion of trust, and has been doing so successfully. The guards are idiots and won't give a person that's been freely walking around up here the past week a second glance so long as you appear under control."

Skye contemplated. "Ok, I'm in. You know where Lincoln is?"

"I saw the room they were leading him and Violet to. They should be waiting there until Kane calls for her to bring your friend down."

"Which won't be happening anytime soon," said Skye, thinking of the complete deadness that was Tobias Kane. "Alright, let's go."

Stepping out of the stairwell, one might have thought Skye and Ward were in some sort of five-star hotel. There were doors lining a well-decorated hallway full of posh red carpets and golden flowers on the walls.

Ward suddenly grabbed the scruff of her neck and pushed her so that she was looking down. Every fiber of Skye's being screamed against him but she reined it in, with good purpose she soon realized. Two men in full body armor walked passed them seconds later.

"Just keep your head down and look compliant, they won't think to question it."

Skye stayed silent but did just that, allowing Ward to bob and weave through a few hallways. They did not pass many people, and the ones they did barely gave them a second glance.

As well as the plan was working Skye could not help but fume under his grasp. The fury below the surface of her skin seemed to be pricking at her right where his hand laid into her neck. She ground her teeth together until her jaw hurt to keep herself focused.

They slowed eventually. With a gander or two about Ward suddenly pulled Skye into a corner and down to a crouching position. "Wait here."

"Wait here?" she hissed. He shushed her.

He shushed her!

Skye couldn't have made a more indignant face if she'd tried.

Ward sighed. "They're right in there," he said, pointing to an opened-doored room across the hall. "Just let me go in first to get Violet's guard down."

Skye was skeptical, but only for a moment, as she saw the wicked woman pass in front of the door as she went for a small collection of liquors and wines on a cabinet.

It pained Skye to give Ward any semblance of control or give in to his plan, just accept his aid! But… Lincoln.

"Do it."

Ward nodded and stood in the same motion. "And try not to use your powers. They draw attention," he said briskly. A second later he was walking inside the room he'd pointed out just moments earlier.

Skye settled her body down as she scowled, not liking to be told what to do. Not liking to have to sit in the corner. She tried to take a deep breath. She had to stay level-headed for Lincoln.

"Hello, Violet."

The woman turned in surprise, hiding the compromising emotion from her face within milliseconds. "Mr. Ward." She eyed him up and down, smiling as she clearly drank him in. "You look well."

"I'm doing well. Kane has been putting me up quite nicely."

"That man does have taste… at times, at least. Sometimes he can be so blind. But overall, he knows how to spot power." She sneered. "And I am quite a fan of that."

"I might have guessed."

"Oh, Grant… May I call you Grant? Would you like something to drink? Static can fetch it for you."

"I'm fine, thank you." He paused. Skye could only glimpse Violet's flower-printed leggings now that she was sitting and Ward's back was to the doorway, but she thought that he was observing something.

"So if I hadn't won the game…" Ward began curiously," this would be what was in store for me?"

Violet finished a sip of her wine. "Only if you didn't behave. He's been a bit of trouble, but I was able to think of a few ways to nip that behavior in the bud quickly."

Skye watched Ward take two deliberate steps, and he was out of her line of sight. "Can he talk?"

Violet smirked behind her drink. "Not unless he wants to receive a few hundred volts to his system," she stated as though the idea was a pleasant one. Skye's throat dropped to her stomach.

"So the outfit isn't just for looks then," Ward asked flatly.

Violet shook her head. "No. Not that I mind it of course… but no. Toby helped me design it. I had the idea, but he was able to create such a contraption. Which was saying something, given that my boy wasn't affected by the voltage Tobias had been punishing them with."

Skye thought back to when she and Lincoln had escaped the "zoo" not long ago. Lincoln wasn't hurt when they'd shock him; it was the only way they'd made it out of the building at all.

Ward tilted his head. "Interesting."

Sickening, Skye's mind autocorrected.

"Though I'm not interested in having such a willful servant - even if Toby gets a kick out of those on the cusp of breaking, I prefer them compliant. I will say, it hasn't been a problem at all since we put this on him! The whole thing has been so convenient, it's even controlled with an app in my phone."

Skye saw Violet remove a large smart phone from her pocket and give it a wave in front of Ward.

The action had been like brandishing a red flag in front of a bull.

Skye could barely contain the growl that ripped from her mouth as she burst forth into the room, pushing her hand forward and pinning Violet into the wall with a great surge of energy. The woman's hands clasped for her neck, as that was where Skye aimed the blast, and the room began to tremble as though manifesting her fury.

"He is not your servant, and he is not your toy!" she screamed. "He's not even your equal you sack of shit!" she wailed. Tears formed in her eyes as she squeezed the woman harder. She gasped and grasped at the non-existent being at her throat, Skye's powers keeping Violet forced against the wall.

Skye crooked her hand slightly, knowing that one more twitch of her fingertip would end this woman's life. Violet was no better than Kane, and would Skye not do the same if she'd had that beast in her grasp?

Skye threw the woman to the side, knocking her into the adjacent wall and hopefully unconscious, as she slumped to the ground.

He's not going to take anything else from me, Skye vowed, fighting for every last piece of dignity she had left.

Anger turned to relief upon remembering whom she'd just rescued, only to hit her in the gut with nausea as she'd spun around to see him.

Violet's description of the outfit she'd put Lincoln in had not been thorough enough to explain the horror of it. There were strange metal rods protruding from his hands, mainly the fingertips. The rods trailed up his arms as though making a somewhat flexible cage, connecting with a bulky metal collar around his neck. It was so large that Lincoln must not have been able to so much as nod his head, and appeared heavy enough to cause some definite aching.

Skye scowled so hard her face trembled from the contortions. She wanted to run to him, to tell him sorry, but she was so swept up in her anger that he was the first to physically sweep her up, wrapping her in a tight hug. He was consoling her, when it should have been the other way around - as per usual.

That shouldn't be the case here.

She gave him one last squeeze and pushed away. "We need to get that thing off of you," she stated to his slight look of hurt that she'd pulled away. She turned around to receive the phone off of Violet.

"This what you're looking for?" asked Ward, wagging the very object. He threw the device and she caught it with two hands. "Hurry up; remember how I said not to use your powers?"

"I know, I know…" Skye muttered, swiping from app to app until she found one with a lightning logo and a decent interface. Of course Kane had to make his torture app stylish. Luckily, the release button was included with the user-friendly gizmo.

The pipes withdrew from Lincoln's skin one by one until they all clattered to the ground, followed by the large collar with a resounding thump!

Lincoln cautiously brought a hand up to gently finger his own neck. He sighed in relief.

"You ok?" Skye asked. The obvious answer was, um, no. But Lincoln should understand that she meant a circumstantial 'ok'. Because honestly, she had no idea what he'd been through, and based on the sheer outfit that horrid woman had had him in they would definitely be having a long chat about feelings and personal issues and traumatic events later.

For now though, Lincoln just nodded. In a raspy voice that made Skye's heart split in two, he said: "can't talk much."

Skye took his hand immediately and Ward turned around to the two of them. "Ready, lovebirds?" he asked impatiently.

Skye ignored the comment, deciding not to answer with an indignant he's not my boyfriend comment.

Especially when she couldn't ignore the feelings that always seemed to bubble up inside of her when Lincoln was around.

She continued to hold Lincoln's hand as they moved. They barely made it out of the room when guards made their way around the corner and towards the room Skye had made quite a commotion in. Before the men could enter, Skye felt a rough shove on her back and fell face forward to the ground with Lincoln falling beside her.

"Sorry, guys!" Ward addressed the men that approached the scene with a smile. "She got a little out of hand when she saw her mate." Skye scrunched her nose. She couldn't help but wonder if Ward was having a bit more fun teasing her than just an undercover persona. "But I have them handled now."

The men exchanged glances, before one stepped forward. "We know Kane was supposed to be downstairs to visit that one," they motioned towards Skye, "until that one," another nod to Lincoln, "were ready to be together. Why are you in the equation?"

Ok, head honcho guard. Not so idiotic as Ward had led her to believe. Probably than Ward believed. Kudos.

Skye heard the small spark and saw the slight flicker on Ward's hand. Trigger happy, that one. Even without a gun.

Before Ward had a chance to rain fireballs down on them, Skye threw her hand up and forced them all over into the hallway wall, knocking them unconscious immediately.

Skye jumped quickly up to her feet and helped Lincoln as he slowly made his way to a standing position.

"Why'd you do that?" Ward asked, slightly incredulous but mostly just appearing confused – not to mention miffed at his missed opportunity of violence.

"It looked like you were about to kill those men," she responded.

"You mean the guys that have been making sure you don't escape this hellhole and beat you senseless any chance they get? Yeah, probably would have."

"Well… I stopped it."

Ward almost argued, mouth popping open with disbelief, but instead he shook his head. "Sure, right. Let's just get out of here while everyone's… incapacitated."

Skye didn't move. "Where would Kane keep transaction records?"

"What?" asked Ward.

"She wants to know where our friends were carted off to," Lincoln rasped, his voice clearly angry even under the distortion.

"Most rooms have computers. I'm guessing the files are accessible from any of those… but we have a target on our backs right now."

"From who?" asked Skye. "Kane's gone!"

"After he sold his idea to a dozen investors! Trust me, someone's going to take in these assets."

Skye waved him off. "They'll be too busy with their new toys," she said, finishing the sentence with a cringe as that word was far too close to what they might truly have been being treated as. Most of her team was unaccounted for and in the hands of "investors". "We have this place to ourselves for a little while."

She began to storm away, Lincoln in hand –she couldn't stop, ok?- when Ward cut off her path.

"Skye, if you don't leave now, I'm not going to stay to protect you. I've repaid my debt to you two. If you keep going… you're on your own."

"Fine," she said without hesitation, stomping passed him.

Thanks for the rescue, Grant Ward, but at this point she was better off without him. Honestly, he was too unpredictable to keep around, no matter how convenient he'd been lately.

She pulled Lincoln into the nearest room, unhooking herself from him as she went to sit down at the computer that occupied the room. (Along with some fancy looking chairs and what Skye was pretty certain was a bar.)

She found Kane's personal account and worked her way into it, sifting through a few files as she used skills that she hadn't taken out for a walk in months.

"Coulson… Fitz…" she mumbled off the names as she found them, sending the contact information to herself as well as attempting to sear it into her memory.

"Did you find them all?" asked Lincoln.

Skye shook her head. "Lockjaw and Priya aren't on the list, but that makes sense. Kane didn't want them to take Inhumans, just the ones he gave powers. But I don't see Hunter or May anywhere."

Lincoln moved his head down and next to her as he went to see the screen for himself when Skye noticed a red ring around his neck. She swallowed, wanting to ask for every detail of the days they'd been apart.

He made a vague noise of thought. "Could they still be here?"

"Huh?"

"Maybe they weren't picked. We were carted off before all those people had chosen everyone."

Skye's eyes widened. "I'll check the cells."

About three seconds later – thank you, fast typing skills- Skye arrived at the prisoner sheet, as well as a cell list.

"Lance Hunter… and Melinda May. Yep, they're here."

"Yes, they areeee," hissed a raspy voice from behind the two agents, who spun around. "And you two will be joining them momentarily."

Skye's eyes were large as golf balls as she heard Lincoln inhale in surprise at who- at what? – was before them.

The only thing she managed to force out of her mouth was a soft, "Oh, frak."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	19. Dark Horse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye has to face a formidable gifted.

Skye wasn't entirely positive on what she was looking at. Sure, she'd seen some crazy things (for example: prickly people like Raina or giant mammals such as Lockjaw) but this just gave off a totally different vibe.

A decidedly _evil_ vibe.

Scales covered the creature's body from head to toe in a green armor. They shined, blinking in any light that hit the reptilian plating in a way that made them appear moist. Maybe even gooey. She could compare it to a lizard, but the scales' shapes were jagged and unlike anything she'd ever seen. If she had to match them to something, the thing before her reminded Skye of a large cockroach, pincers jutting out from either side of his head.

Or may not even a head. One thing was for sure: this head was not human, and the face seemed to clearly be covered in some sort of helmet. But the pine colored headgear meshed right into the body with flawless seams, making Skye unsure if she was looking at a mechanical or biological creature.

Either way, Skye and Lincoln somehow could sense who was in charge of this form. If he'd acquired a new body, was commanding a suit… they couldn't be sure. But in some freaky sixth sense way Skye knew who it was.

"Kane?" asked Lincoln's hoarse voice.

The thing before them tilted its head. " _Somewhat_."

"You were dead!" shrieked Skye.

" _Do I_ look _living_?" he screeched at her.

She shared the tiniest of glances with Lincoln before turning back to Kane with a small shrug. "Mmm… kind of?"

It chuckled. _"Oh, I am you know. I am indeed, very much alive."_

It sprung forward, pinning Lincoln to the ground and raising a massive claw as it perched upon his chest before Skye could think to move.

_"_ _But I am much less negotiable, now."_

"Get off of him!" she shouted, pushing her hand forward immediately. Her waves sprung forward, forceful as ever, but this armored creature was barely bothered by it. Skye saw an eyeless smirk upon his face.

Lincoln grabbed his leg and put forth great strain as he shocked the creature. But Kane was not affected in the slightest, and backhanded Lincoln with a hardy swoop.

He fell, eyes shut and out cold.

"Lincoln!" Skye shouted and rushed forward.

 _"_ _You,"_ hissed the creature. He stepped up and off of Lincoln with a reptilian-like speed, wrapping an overly large hand around Skye's neck in the same motion. He shook her as though she weren't more than a snow globe. _"You have been nothing but trouble!"_

He swung her into the wall, the back of her head hitting so hard she suddenly knew how the ground felt when she quaked it. As Skye's flailing hands attempted to loosen this thing's chokehold on her neck with her now fading powers, he put a free hand up casually to his chin. _"Not_ nothing _but trouble… I suppose, but perhaps,"_ he squeezed even tighter, _"more trouble than you are worth."_

Skye had stopped thrashing, merely digging her nails into his somewhat slimy hands to no avail. She was quickly losing her senses and train of thought.

Before the black ink dots filled her eyes too much she got a fair look at his face. The mouth and nose area were not covered in any sort of scales.

Her hand drove upwards to deliver a mighty pulse into his face, sending Kane reeling and dropping her immediately. On all fours and with chest burning, Skye scampered to where he had left Lincoln unconscious, possibly dead-

Ok, not dead. Hopefully. _Probably_ in fact, because he was no longer there.

She glanced around the room in nervous urgency but did not see Lincoln. She did see Kane set his eyes on her once he'd regained his ground, but with another forceful quake to the face she managed to distract him enough to make a run for it.

She bolted into the hall but knew he wouldn't be too far behind. Where could she run to anyway? And where was Lincoln!

Skye ducked into the first room she found, which happened to be the one she'd knocked out Violet in. The woman was still lying on the floor, dead to the world.

 _"_ _You want to play cat and mouse?"_ hissed Kane. _"Good choice,_ Quakey."

Skye had knelt behind a couch, hiding, like she really was just a rodent cowering from a feline.

 _Think,_ she ordered herself, glancing around the room. There wasn't much to it. Just alcohol and an unconscious lady, not to mention her creepy app reliant torture device outfit thing that was uncomfortable as hell-

Wait.

 _"_ _Here, kitty kitty kitty…."_ called the creature. He paused as though second-guessing himself. _"Now hold on, I'm the cat in this game. Come out Quake-"_

Skye grunted with strain when she hurdled forward. Quick as bunny fleeing a fox – or would snake be more appropriate considering the scales? - she nimbly managed to get the cuffs on Kane's long, talon-tipped hands.

He threw his head back and howled in a rasp of frustration. If Skye weren't half as scared as she was, she might have thought the sight funny. But cartoon smoke emerging from his ears couldn't save her nerves now.

Mildly stunned to the point of staring, Skye finally began to trot herself away from the man pulling at the object restraining him.

Two problems though: one, he was not a man. Not anymore, or perhaps just not at the moment. Second thing: There weren't any objects restraining him.

Skye had barely made it out of the door before Kane ripped apart the cuffs.

He leapt in front of her, blocking the one exit to the room. _"Leaving so soon?"_

Skye did the only thing she could think of and pushed her hands forward, mustering up as much strength as possible into the surge of energy.

The waves barely moved his clearly much more formidable form, and he advanced on her just the same. Skye felt more anger than fear though, and in such almost foolishly stood her ground as opposed to fleeing. She strained so hard she fell to her backside.

He moved forward, taking heavy steps as though fighting high winds with a crooked grin, when only a few feet away from her he stumbled. Ok, stumbled would be too kind of a word. He toppled sideways and into the ground, because a flaming hot ball about four feet in diameter had just rammed into him.

Skye's mouth popped open in shock, and she turned to Ward. "You just don't know when to leave well-enough alone, do you?"

"Um, you're welcome," he responded.

Skye was honestly losing track – was this rescue number three? – not that it mattered, he'd been the reason Lincoln and she had been put in there in first place. She thought that gave her license for unlimited snark (and maybe just a tad need for gratitude.)

So despite what he'd done to her in the past, she let him help her up. Despite a nagging voice in her head, she let him jog next to her as they made their way out.

"Place is on lock down," Ward told her. "Think you can hack your way out of it?"

She shook her head, having gotten a look at their security. "Not out the exits. I'd need a little more time on Kane's computer-"

Skye halted.

"What?" asked Ward.

"I've got the next best thing."

She turned around, now leaving Ward at a dead stop. "Are you-"

"Going back towards Kane? Yeah," she answered. "Gotta get something."

He ran next to her. "That thing is _Kane_?" he asked skeptically.

Skye felt a burn of smugness run up her that she had a small vantage over him for once. "Yeah. Whitehall being his dad and doing some experiments pretty much messed the dude up I'm thinking… it's not like he's inhuman."

"Ok…"

Skye smiled. "Didn't know about Whitehall?"

"No," he said. He paused for a few seconds, as though deciding whether of not to add: "You're talking a lot for our current situation."

"I'm all over the place, it would seem due to some unsavory circumstances. Just wait until rage rounds the corner again. Right now, terror driven impulse decisions appears to be driving the Skye-mobile."

Luckily, Skye led them to the spot she was trying to get to without running into Kane at all.

"31… 32… 33! Here we go," Skye announced, tapping the wall pad next to the door and causing a rounded keyboard with holograms for numbers pop out. She was aware that Ward had no idea what she was doing, that she happened to get a look at the prisoner barracks, but she was just fine with that.

"Can you work your magic on that thing?" asked Ward.

Skye didn't have time to make the remark of 'of course, give me six seconds,' because then it might have taken her eight seconds or something as ridiculous as that. The door swung open.

"Tada," she sang, brandishing her hands like a magician flaunting their trick.

Before anything physical came out there was a rough _'ruff'_ sound. (Before anything physical but also _after_ a few moments of silence, thank you very much comedic timing for leaving Skye hanging.)

They heard the sound of monstrous stomping footsteps as Lockjaw bounded forward, pressing his head into Skye lovingly. She felt the wishbone looking thing on top of his head almost shake a bit as it pushed into her. Then the great lug backed up, tilting his slobber-filled face as he looked at her slightly less saliva covered one.

"I'm guessing you're wondering where May is, but right now we have bigger fish to fry."

Lockjaw threw her a blank stare accompanied by a dog noise that somehow sounded strangely like "yeah, no shit." It was a hard to remember that the guy had probably once been human, and therefore had the brains of one still.

Though clearly he had some senses the homosapiens didn't have as he perked up his ears out of the blue, and directed his eyesight upwards. Skye and Ward barely had a moment to follow his gaze when the ceiling exploded.

OK, exploded may have been too harsh a term. But… yeah. There was a _boom_ noise along with a clutter of broken cement, the dust making it difficult to see. All three of them were forced to shield their eyes.

Lockjaw was now barking at varying degrees of the roof, but Skye could barely open her eyes as they stung from the debris. She heard Ward shout, "there!" and realized she must have really got the blunt of the vision defect.

"What's happening?" she asked as she attempted to clear her vision.

" _Bark_!" said Lockjaw.

It wasn't a very helpful explanation.

"Ward!" she exclaimed, finally forcing her eyes open. She felt heat and saw light through blurred vision, though it was growing dimmer. It was moving from her. Ward was lit up, running from Lockjaw and Skye. She scanned upwards and saw something large scurrying across the ceiling, but Ward seemed to be herding it away.

A few more moments of giving her eyes time to adjust, she saw that the thing moving around above their heads was Kane.

Ward was firing shot after shot (haha, firing literal fire) at Kane as he crawled around the ceiling like an insect. Thing was, he'd acquired some kind of weapon. It slowed him slightly having to carry it, but not enough to do major help.

In fact, it definitely gave _him_ the advantage. He used the item on Ward, showering the man in a ray of golden light that almost looked like a shower of sparklers. Ward screamed, then dropped to the ground.

Skye almost felt the man's evil grin. " _Quake's turn_ ," he drawled, turning the weapon on her. She dodged the beam, sending a few pulses his way but they didn't slow him down.

Lockjaw leapt into action. Kane pointed the weapon at the canine inhuman, who gave a yelp of pain, but he did not fall to the ground. He kept charging, until enveloping the man fully as Lockjaw's body weight pressed onto Kane.

Skye could have then counted the sight before her horrifying, but it was actually kind of terrific, to watch Lockjaw grab Kane's head in his massive maw and just go to town, whipping it back and forth.

Skye waited for the head to rip off. And waited. It had to fall off…

Why wasn't it coming off?

It was impossible really, but Kane's clawed hands wrapped around Lockjaws legs, ripping them away from each other until he lost his balance. Her captor hopped up. Lockjaw was so surprised he didn't retaliate quickly enough, which was where his dire mistake was. Kane had the opportunity to move, in as scientific terms as Skye could get, _fast as hell_ and put forth many attacks in rapid motion. Lockjaw fell just as Ward had.

Neither of them were moving.

 _"_ _Ugh!"_ hissed the creature in his triumph, though he sounded more annoyed than triumphant. Also, the noise came out more like an _uch_ , like when you say Hannukah correctly. _"We must end this."_

Skye wanted to fight. She felt a fire of desire to put this guy down more than she'd yearned for anything in her entire life.

She didn't care that the odds were against her. She didn't care that she was going to lose, that she was probably going to die. She cared that all her friends were in danger, and in death she could not help them, but she couldn't help them as Kane's pet prisoner either. She at least had to go out swinging.

"Then let's end it," she growled. She shook the ground before she focused any of her powers straight on him, but he kept his balance, picking up his large gun and aiming it right for her.

Skye made a sort of forcefield around herself, shouting with strain once the weapon's beam made contact with her. But her shield held up, the bright yellow particles bouncing off of it and unable to reach her.

_"_ _Succumb! Just give up, aren't you tired?"_

_Aren't you ugly?_ She wanted to scream back at him, but she was exerting too much energy attempting to keep her shield up. (Though in hindsight Skye was kind of happy about this, as that wasn't really the best comeback.)

She just kept going until she wasn't really aware of anything going on around her anymore. She was going to keep this protection up until she passed out, she realized, and she wanted it that way. Better to not have to watch Kane kill her.

Her knees were wobbling as though the ground were made of Jello. She felt the iron tang of blood drip down to her nose from her mouth due to the strain and knew she wasn't going to last more than a few more seconds.

Then some sort of flash blindsided her from the corner of her eye, a crackling coming along with it.

Skye could barely take a moment to notice it, as she had to continue push her shield. Though, it had become remarkably easier to uphold in the past few moments…

Probably due to the fact that the weapon had stopped firing.

Skye immediately brought down her throbbing arms and collapsed like a gingerbread house in May. The momentary reprieve was almost blissful in terms of instant relief, but she assumed Kane would still come jump on her with those massive claws he'd obtained. She wasn't sure she'd have it in herself to fight back now that she'd let go.

 _"_ _What is happening?"_ Kane hissed, staring at his hands. Which were actually beginning to look more and more like hands.

The claws were de-growing! Wait… shrinking. That's called shrinking.

Had Skye mentioned she was about to pass out?

She'd just managed to get her head up to look at the guy, but another wave of exhaustion hit her full tidal and she fell back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Skye."

It was a raspy voice, but _so_ not Kane's. She'd still recognize it under any distortion. The soft touch of him on her back on confirmed it.

"Lincoln?" she said. Her muddled mind tried to focus as she attempted to regain her senses, a process which was kind of like trying to sniff out the difference between orange and mango in a perfume shop.

He sat behind her, supporting Skye so she wasn't completely on the ground again. She saw Kane's weapon set to the side of him, and Skye realized the light she'd seen earlier was Lincoln's powers knocking it away from Kane.

"I'm sorry for the disappearing act earlier," he said, "but I was pretty sure we could use some friends' help."

"What?"

That's when Skye saw the cavalry charge in, May and Hunter. (May being _double_ cavalry. Hah.)

"How did you get them out?" she asked Lincoln.

He brought his hand forth, flipping it around to put on a show of sparks over his palm.

"Ah."

"What are you doing to me?" Kane shouted, his voice becoming clearer and less scratchy by the second.

"Did you forget what you did to me, eh? Sure wasn't my idea to become a power turner-offer."

Kane stood incredibly still, making Skye wonder what was going on under that mask. She was hoping for a look of terror.

"Seems like someone is scared," said May. Then her face darkened, and it hadn't been incredibly light to begin with. "As you should be."

Skye felt a tug on her shoulders as Lincoln helped her to her feet. They started trudging over to where Kane was kneeling on the ground, clearly feeling a great impact from the loss of his powers. The scales rescinded, his color turned back to a human hue, and the seamless area between what appeared to be a helmet and his back turned into an actual helmet, though still quite bug-esque.

He ripped it off his head as though it were suddenly boiling, perhaps becoming too small in its metamorphosis.

The man sat panting on the ground, sweat slicking back his silvery hair as he stared at them all in awe. Honestly, He looked more unkempt than Skye had ever seen him. As though finally, _finally_ he didn't have another card tucked up his sleeve.

Skye moved away from Lincoln to stand on her own two feet. She held out her hand, palm towards Kane as though pointing a weapon. "Get up."

The man huffed a breath, his head sagging forwards before letting slip a small hysterical chuckle. "Oh? But I rather like it down here- ah!"

Skye had jerked her hand just a tad, but it gave off a small concentrated wave straight to Kane's hand. She'd hoped to break his finger.

"It's _over,"_ Skye said, pronunciation carefully slow.

Kane leered, changing his face with the speed of a snake. He jerked his head. "No. You're still here. Still in _my_ house-"

"After looking at all of your security features, I am sure I can safely get us out of here, _especially_ with you as our hostage. Now, are you going to come quietly or get the crap beat out of you more?"

Kane twitched his eyes, flicking his stare between each of them. Lincoln and Skye holding out their hands, May in a ready stance, and Hunter appeared itching to get his hands on Kane to punch him. Who wasn't, though, honestly?

Suddenly Kane gripped his stomach, backing up onto his knees. He started grunting with discomfort.

"What're you doing?" Skye asked, but she didn't need the answer. There was a pool of blood where he'd just been leaning over. "What-"

"You shot me, remember?" he hissed, then chuckled half-heartedly. "Actually, one of your boyfriends shot me. I thought the power of the Kraken helmet would sustain me…"

"That thing?" asked Hunter, nodding to the insectoid headgear.

"No, the other all- mighty helmet lying about!"

"Ah," mused Hunter, as though he hadn't just been screamed at. "I take it that was sarcasm."

"I vowed never to use the power again, I hate… what it does to me," he said between pants of pain and exhaustion.

Skye frowned. "If you think we're going to let you use its power again…

"No…. I don't. But if you expect me to come quietly, or even to die here you have another thing coming."

The man took a deep breath and turned his face upwards as though to shout when-

WHAM.

May kicked him upwards in the jaw, leaving Kane to slump to the ground.

"May!" Skye shouted more out of shock than anything else.

"He was becoming excited. Though I'm sure that was perceivable to you three as well."

"He probably had an order to call out that someone could hear, if we'd have let him," said Hunter, catching on to what May was saying.

"Well… good, " said Skye. "We should still take him."

Hunter's eyebrows shot upwards. "You really sure you don't want to see this man bleed out?"

"Course I do," she growled. "Like I said though, hostage."

"He might not make it anyway," said Lincoln, hope coating his voice.

"And we need to help Lockjaw and… Ward. I guess." He'd helped her enough to get a pass out of the worst underground obstacle course in the world. "First things first, we have to make it back to a computer."

"Here?" asked Hunter. "Why?"

"Firstly, to find a way out. I didn't get a good look at the security," said Skye.

"I thought you said you could get us out?" he asked.

May turned to him. "Bluff."

"Ooh," said Hunter. "Color me impressed; give that girl an Oscar. Downright frightening performance, if I'm honest."

"But we also need to find Priya and the others," said Skye. "Priya and Tessa are probably around here somewhere, but everyone else was taken to new… places."

Lincoln stepped forward. "And if they're under the care of anyone like Violet…" His mouth remained open as though wanting to finish the though, but it was too awful to figure out what to say.

May stepped forward. "We need them back. No matter what conditions they're in."

"Exactly," said Skye. "First things first, let's get out of this hellhole."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, sorry about the wait. Not sure anyone's still reading but I'm trying to finish this thing, at least for me haha.
> 
> Next few chapters (which I have written already, yay) will be checking in on what the others have been up to and then their rescues… we won't be coming back to this place. Their escape from where we've left them is pretty straight forward, so consider these guy's out of Kane's hands.


	20. A White Elephant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a glimpse into Jemma's life during the week after being given away by Kane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These next few chapters are random. We're seeing what Jemma and Mack, Fitz and Coulson, plus Bobbi have been going through. These were supposed to be super short but have developed lives of their own with a few OC villians and such thrown in. It's not very in line with the rest of the story (which has been shaky at best anyhow) so I just wanted to give you a heads up that they're quite the detour in case you don't have interest in reading.

Jemma's stomach turned and twisted like an angry ocean inside of her. She moaned, suppressing the urge to gag.

"Alright, get up, you," a gruff voice ordered. She listened, despite her body telling her not to. She had to listen, whomever was barking at her had one hand on her shoulder and another woven through her hair.

Simmons finally managed to open her eyes. She'd been sleeping. Or, unconscious. Now she was… being pulled from a box?

Jemma's stomach lurched as she remembered, the crate tugging at her memory immediately. Her last sentient moments had been being shoved inside and a needle stuck into the crook of her elbow.

She had quite a few memories of her experience before that, though.

**NINE DAYS AGO**

As Kane had offered up everyone as a parting gift, all Simmons knew she wanted, she needed, was Fitz. She'd hoped they'd somehow stay together, but that hadn't been the case. The special was clearly one per customer.

An older man with wispy white hair had come forth, examined her for only a few moments before stating, "she'll do nicely."

Another man, larger and younger than her buyer, moved forward, and she was hastily brought to the elder's car, which happened to be a limousine, placed in the backseat, and had the power inhibitor cuffs on her wrists melded together with a simple push from the bodyguard that had dropped her there.

Before she had much time to panic the door opened and the old man got in, a placid smile on his face. Honestly, if she'd happened to come by this chap in passing she might have thought him adorable, old and kindly face he had.

The car started moving. The wrinkled face before her smiled sweetly. "That was nice of Mr. Kane to give us a gift, don't you think? Even to get the pick of the litter! So thoughtful."

Simmons wasn't entirely sure how to respond, considering he'd basically just refered to the lot of them as puppies. She swallowed. "I… What are you going to do with me?"

His old grin upturned farther and he reached forward. Jemma flinched back, but he merely tapped her reassuringly on the hand. "Not much of anything, I would think. It would just be rude to refuse such a gracious offering." The old man stroked his chin. "Though, my son is gone for two more days… perhaps I'll keep you around for the conversation."

Jemma blinked. Keep her around? "So, then… you'll just let me go?"

He chuckled. "Oh no dear, can't do that. It would be irresponsible."

She felt a tears build in her eyes, quickly as her hope had vanished. "Why? I promise I won't go to the police-"

He made a small laugh again. "You wouldn't want to, I'm sure. They'd turn you over to the government toot sweet with those powers, I would think. But to release a young woman with abilities into the wild, especially one that has vengeful purpose? Not too smart."

She straightened up. "I have no interest in vengeance, I assure you."

"But you can guarantee you wouldn't go after those friends of yours, eh? One might think a clever little missy like you would at least try to reclaim them."

Jemma's mouth popped open, but had no retort.

He smiled once again. "Exactly. Now, onto more important matters." He leaned in, arm casually pressing his weight into his knee. "Do you like gin, dear?"

FOUR DAYS LATER

"Checkmate!"

"What?"

Earl frantically looked over the board, pressing his reading glasses to his face, before finally slumping back in defeat. "Two in a row, I don't believe it!"

"Aha! So much for being the king of the board, eh?"

The old man laughed laughed, clutching a hand to his belly as his head leaned backwards.

Jemma was surprised how easily she'd become accustomed to living in this place. Granted, it was a mansion and her bedroom was about three times as big as the one at the base, but she still wore the cuffs that suppressed her powers and marked her as owned. She wasn't allowed to leave.

Somehow, she just had a hard time relating that to Earl.

Earl had not been a good man. His money was made from drug trafficking, for the most part, and he had "accepted long ago that bloodshed was a part of the business."

He'd since left said business, investing the remainder of his money. Though even when he'd been in the thick of it he was always able to separate those in the trade from innocents, and would work to make sure they were not caught in the crossfire. He called hers an "unsavory predicament", and told her he'd do whatever he could to make her feel comfortable.

"Oh Jemma, I do not think I have laughed like that in years. I am quite lucky to have you, even if it's a shame you have me."

Simmons took a sip of her tea. "Honestly, it probably is luck I fell in with you. If one of those others had taken me…"

Jemma looked down, staring at the black liquid that slowed in her petite cup. Who knew what those people wanted with her and her friends. She doubted many of them were like Earl, if any. They were probably living through horrors as she sat drinking tea, playing chess.

"Thinking about your friends again?"

Simmons lifted her head to see Earl's pitying face. She pursed her lips, trying to keep tears from falling through. "I just wish I knew anything about what was happening to them."

"Dear, if it is plaguing you this much I'll see what I can find out for you," he said.

"You will?"

"Of course. And, if anyone's willing to part with them, I will pay whatever is necessary to see them brought here."

"But I thought you didn't even want me?" she asked.

"Jemma, you've brought more life and cheer into this house than it's seen in a lifetime. I don't think I want to part with such a gift just yet."

Jemma had a brief fantasy then, of Fitz and her together in this large house, playing board games and making breakfast in a strange game of life. Yes, it was not the most preferable option, but somehow in Jemma's mind, her stay here was always temporary, if not a bit prolonged. They'd get out. No one being hurt in the meantime was really all she could ask for, wasn't it?

"Thank you," she breathed graciously, giving the old man a squeeze.

"My pleasure," he answered, pulling back. "But tomorrow. It is late for old men like me."

"Of course," she said, helping him up. "Do you need me to escort you?"

"No, I am fine. Thank you. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight," she muttered, watching him hobble off.

Simmons turned back to the table, gathered up the teacups and made off to the kitchen. She'd left the book she'd been working on in there anyhow.

 _Heidi_ sat on the countertop, staring at her until she turned her head back to the dishes. It had been one of her favorite books as a child. Every night she attempted to read it, but found her thoughts drifting to her team, to Fitz, until she ended up crying herself to sleep anyway.

But maybe tomorrow they'd be there with her. Maybe they could go through this together.

Jemma spun around to pick the book up and take it to her room, only to find it not where it had been a moment ago.

" _Heidi_ , eh?" said a man with shoulder-length hair leaning on the doorframe, casually flipping through the book. The man cocked an unusually large brow at her, causing her to belatedly realize he expected an answer.

"Yes," she said cautiously. "I used to read it as a child."

"Can't say I'm a big fan of reading. Not when there's a whole world out there, or at least television."

"Who are you?" asked Jemma.

"The better question is, who are you? You're the newest member of the household, aren't you?"

"I… suppose. I'm Jemma."

The book suddenly fell to the floor with a thud, though the large man didn't look down or appear startled that it had. "Oh gosh Jemma, I seem to have dropped your book. Would you mind picking that up?"

Simmons' instincts were yelling at her to make a run for it, this guy made her hair stand on edge. But whether due to courtesy or fear, she dipped down to receive the item.

"Mm, you are a perky little thing, huh?"

Jemma shot up in fright, the man staring at her as though he was sizing her up.

He took a step towards her. "You know, my father never approved of slaves, I'm almost surprised he accepted you. But then... he'd never refuse a gift from an old colleague, no matter how dastardly a person they are." The man pushed of lock of her hair behind her ear.

She slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me," she hissed, backing away. She ran into the sink countertop, and felt behind herself until she found a butter knife, grasping it in her fingers.

He cocked his head. "Oh, I apologize." Jemma scrunched her face in confusion at the words, but the man smirked. "…in advance, because unfortunately for you, touching is not all you're going to get from me tonight."

He lunged as Jemma jabbed the knife down, but he caught her wrist. Pushing them together just as the guard had, her hands were pinned together by the cuffs.

"As nice as my father may be, never forget your place, slave." He began shoving her towards the stairs. "You're not even an ordinary drudge, are you? Wonder what fun we can have with your abilities…"

"No! Stop it, get off!"

"Don't worry, just a short trip to my room."

"ROBERT!"

The booming voice startled Jemma. And Robert, by the feel of the way he flinched as he held her shoulders.

Earl made his way forward, and Jemma was honestly surprised the loud voice had come from him. "Unhand Miss Simmons this _instant_."

"Come on, father, you don't think Tobias gave her to you just to look at. Or play damn _board_ games with," he spat, disgusted.

"It does not matter what he intended for me to do with her. She is my property, you are under my roof, and you will leave her be right now!"

It took a few moments, but Simmons felt his grasp loosen and was eventually shoved away. She awkwardly moved towards Earl.

"I am so sorry," he told her, grasping her hands. The cuffs came apart. "Go to your room and lock the door. I have to remind my _son_ of the house rules."

Jemma nodded and scampered up the steps.

"Wow, another waste of potential you have there, dad. That girl has powers doesn't she? I bet you haven't even taken off her inhibitors once!"

"She did not ask for this, Robert! You know better than to-"

Simmons didn't hear anymore, shutting the door to her bedroom the voices were not much more than incoherent mumbles. She took a deep shuddering breath to steady herself before pushing away from the door and surrounding herself in the covers of her bed.

How could she have become so disillusioned? This was not a good place. As easy as she had it, Earl still thought he _owned_ her, her actions were not her own making. He could let her go if he really wanted to!

"How did I ever get myself into this…" she whispered to herself, allowing the tears to run for yet another night.

* * *

"Jemma?"

She gasped awake, still shaken from what had transpired. Earl smiled condolatoringly.

_If you're truly upset with how I'm treated, why don't you let me go?_

"I am sorry to frighten you."

"It's hard to not be frightened ever when you're not a free person."

He sighed. "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?"

"What?" she asked.

"You can't stay here, Jemma. I was being selfish in thinking that you could. My children are… well, they don't have an old man's values, let's say."

She gulped. _Robert certainly doesn't_.

"Until Kane goes public, you are rare. I fear they might even kill me to get their hands on you. That's why I've given you away."

"Given me away…?"

He nodded. "There's a woman I'm in contact with. You'll have to work, but she won't mistreat you. She's good for it."

"But I…"

"I know you don't want to leave-"

"No," she stated. "I want to go home."

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "You need to start learning how to think of other places as your home." She leered and grit her teeth in response, and he sighed. "Your new mistress will pick up in the morning."

Jemma frowned. Mistress. He really did think of her as a slave. As pretty as his words as been to make her feel comfortable she finally realized the cage bars they were being spoken to her through . She turned in the bed, showing him her back. "If you're quite finished, I'd really like to get to bed. Before my new _job_ starts."

To her surprise he did not protest, though she did hear a resigned sigh. He moved off the edge of her bed and she heard the door creak, and could have sworn she heard a small whispered, goodbye.

* * *

A car came for her the next morning. It was black and freshly washed, with a man in a cap driving it.

Jemma walked outside the large house's grande doors, stepping into the backseat. One of Earl's servants tapped on the glass though, and she told the driver to wait before lowering the window.

"Earl would like you to have this. Pleasant travels, miss."

Jemma took the paper from the man and watched him go back to the house longingly. She turned her head down as soon as the car turned the street corner.

Her name was written in long cursive on quite a posh envelope. She almost allowed herself to refuse reading the letter, but honestly, who was she to spite but herself?

Jemma,

I am sorry we had to part this way. I am an old man, and lived an unconventional life. I fear my tainted perception of the way things are from living in the shadows might have ruined me and my ability to look after you.

I wish I could have set you free but Kane would come after me and my family if he'd ever found out. Not all my children are as wild as Robert, but I fear this is another department my illegal actions ruined what could have been beautiful.

I do hope you find peace.

\- Earl

Simmons hung her head, crinkling up the letter in her hand. She wasn't sure what she was meant to do with this information. Maybe the man just needed closure. One thing was for sure: he was right about screwing up his kid.

When Jemma looked up, she expected them to be in some sort of gated community, or in the midst of a long drive to one, but their current location seemed to be a shipyard.

"Excuse me, is this the right place?" she asked, now starting to worry. She didn't want to live on docks of some sort.

"Change of plans," growled the driver. Jemma's eyes widened, as she recognized the wild voice from the night before. He whipped off his hat as he turned in the seat to face her.

She burst open the car door and bolted, only to be met with two men waiting for he. They caught and gripped her upper arms on either side. Robert exited the car smoothly, and walked up to Jemma as the epitome of calmness. Simmons tried to mimic the motion.

"Do you know my father was just going to give you away for free?" asked Robert.

"I didn't actually ask about my price since I had no say in-"

" _That_ was a rhetorical question!" he shouted in her face.

She picked herself up though. "Sorry, I figure most of your questions are literal when you're as dense as you… ah!"

He'd grabbed her chin, staring at her with hate. But he smiled. "It's ok. I get to sell you now, actually get something out of this madness." He let her go, eyes wandering over her body. Robert opened his mouth.

"Sir," cut in one of the men holding her before he had the chance to say something vile. "The ship will be leaving."

Robert sighed. "Right. It's your lucky day, vassal." He took two steps forward, staring down at her so their noses nearly touched. "Have a nice voyage."

Jemma gasped as the needle struck her skin, completely unaware he'd even been holding one. Barely holding onto consciousness, she felt one of the men take on her whole body weight before gently placing her inside a box she could have sworn was lined with hay.

PRESENT

Everything had happened so fast, she was still catching up to her current surroundings as the man hauling her shoulder dragged her along.

Tons of crates, and just as many men pulling dazed people out of them. She'd been on a boat of human trafficking.

"This way," he said, pulling her abruptly to the right.

"Alright men, hold him steady," she heard voices nearby. "Watch out for those horns, he's a big'un."

"Horns…" Jemma muttered, accidentally out loud. But horns made her think of…

"Mack!" she shouted, but he was too busy to hear her. He was fighting off tons of people. Ripping and clawing at the air as the men tried to throw a net over him.

His gaze caught her face and he froze in shock. "Simmons? Agh!"

The men had taken advantage of his momentary pause, one of them thrusting forward a large staff that had electricity crackling off the end of it. He fell the ground, clutching his stomach and clearly no longer a threat.

Unfortunately, that did not stop the man with the shocking weapon. "Yeah, you like that?" he said, hitting Mack over and over again. "Next time you'll do as we say!"

"Stop!" Jemma shrieked. Mack's show must have distracted her captor as well, because when she ran from him, her arm fell from his grasp easily before his mind caught up and tried to snag her. She bolted for Mack, placing herself between him and the cruel people.

"What the hell?" asked the man. "Hey buddy, she yours?"

"Yes!" exclaimed her handler, clutching her upper arm once again. "She just slipped away."

"Curb your livestock, man. Can't have rogues messing up other's business!"

The man holding her scoffed. "Like you lot weren't just getting handled by your own animal," he said, gesturing his head towards Mack.

"We are _not animals_!" Simmons exclaimed, unable to contain her utter outrage.

"Ah, shut it." He shook her arm, almost halfheartedly. Jemma realized she had hit an alltime low when she thought: _at least he didn't ignore me._

"You ain't gonna teach her a lesson?"

Simmons paled, but her man just shrugged. "It's not like she's mine. I'm just moving her."

"Hah. True that, brother. If I had enough money to buy one of these… you sure as hell wouldn't see me hanging out at these docks."

The man holding her laughed. "Aint' that the truth. Well, gotta get her to the auction house."

"Good luck to you, mate."

"You too."

Next thing Jemma knew, she was in a van with her hands tied to the ceiling as she was forced to stand with a dozen other people in the same predicament. Mack was not one of them.

Three new men unloaded her and the other people, shoving them into the underbelly of some warehouse. They split them up, then. She and two other girls were taken to a room that reminded Simmons of a non-convicted people's area of a jail. The holding area. On the way there she passed people holding others on leashes, making a chill run up her spine. A few of the people were wearing somewhat skimpy outfits.

She paced, combing up and down her arms with her fingers for what had to be only about a half hour when they room across from them began to fill with a few men.

One of them was Mack.

The guys had drudged into the cell having apparently been beaten, Mack looking worse off than Simmons had ever seen him.

"Mack, are you alright?" she nearly sobbed, hands against the bars of the cell.

He was rubbing his head. "Jemma, that you? Thought it might have been a hallucination…"

She swallowed. "It's me. Not sure how long we'll be here, though."

"Doesn't seem like too permanent of a place, huh?"

"They're going to sell us," ran out of her mouth before she could stop it. Jemma put a hand to her face. "This is an auction. And I saw what some of the girls are wearing- oh god…"

"Simmons-"

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm just scared."

He sighed. "Join the club. I can't tell you things are gonna be alright, because clearly they aren't."

"I'm not even hurt. I saw you for only a few moments and you were being pummeled… god, are _you_ alright?"

"I'm- well, I've had better days. How about we not talk about the bad stuff. May only be seeing each other for a little longer."

So they spoke like they were old friends catching up for a while. Simmons hadn't spent a particularly large amount of time with Mack, even less of that had been one on one, but it was relaxing and she felt a familiarity to it that was quite a welcome change.

They talked and talked, chatting until it became dark.

Abruptly dark. Like, lights shorted out dark.

"What was that?" shouted a man out of sight. Simmons assumed it was some sort of guard. A moment later, she heard a grunt and a thud, so she peered against the bars to get a better look as she heard footsteps coming nearer.

"Lincoln!" she shouted as he rounded the corner. She gasped. "May!"

"Man, I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you sparky. Even if you _did_ take your sweet time."

Lincoln grinned. "Hey, it wasn't exactly easy getting down here."

"How are you going to open the door?" asked Jemma.

"Skye's working on it," May interjected. She was barely done with her sentence when the door's electronic lock turned green, opened with a click!

Jemma stepped out of the door cautiously, as though she weren't really free. But these were her friends standing before her. "Oh, May!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the agent. "I missed you."

Melinda pressed her hand against Simmons' hair. "Missed you too."

"We're gonna want to get out of here," said Lincoln. "This place will be running amok with gifteds if we're lucky."

"If we're lucky?" asked Mack. "How is that lucky?"

"Because it's our goal," said May. "We're shutting this operation down."

"And there's more like it too, but we figured this was as good as any to start with," Lincoln said with a lopsided grin to Jemma.

A gruff bark resounded all the way to the basement.

"That's the signal," said May. "Let's move."

They all began to head for the stairs when Jemma took Lincoln's arm. "Is Fitz alright?" she asked pleadingly.

Lincoln shook his head. "He's next on the list." He smiled, just a bit. "But maybe you can help pick him up."

"Yeah?"

"I know it'll be rough after all this but Skye had an idea… hope you can handle some undercover."


End file.
